March 17, 2014

AIR FORCE OFFICIALS CONTINUE TO MAKE CASE FOR NUCLEAR INVESTMENTS

By ExchangeMonitor

The United States may be facing a massive price tag to modernize the nation’s nuclear deterrent, but it’s a necessary cost, senior Air Force officials said yesterday at the Air Force Association Air and Space Conference. In the face of difficult budget realities, Air Force Global Strike Command chief Lt. Gen. James Kowalski continued to make the case for investment in the nation’s nuclear deterrent, suggesting that it was a relative bargain compared to the importance the deterrent plays in national security. “I find it incredulous when people tell me we can’t afford to recapitalize the ultimate guarantee of our national sovereignty,” Kowalski said.

The Air Force is facing investments in a new bomber—which Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh called one of the service’s top three priorities—while the Navy is looking at building a new fleet of Ohio-class nuclear submarines. All that is happening while the National Nuclear Security Administration is preparing to embark on an ambitious warhead life extension strategy that would include three interoperable warheads. “We really have no choice,” said Maj. Gen. Garrett Harencak, the Air Force’s Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration. “We have no choice but to take a small amount of our treasure … and put it to modernizing the few weapons that we have, life extending them, recapitalizing them. We have to do it. You have no choice. And the United States Air Force is committed to doing so.” While making the case for investments in the nuclear deterrent, Kowalski took a jab at the U.S. Postal Service, which lost $15.9 billion in Fiscal Year 2012. “This is not a slam on the post office,” he said. “Maybe you can go out and buy some more stamps to get them to break even. I’m free.”

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