Brian Bradley
NS&D Monitor
3/27/2015
The Air Force is building a team to look at the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent and how much of the intercontinental ballistic missile enterprise needs to be recapitalized, Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes, Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Plans and Requirements said this week. The review could have implications on force size and communications networks. “We know the missile does [need to be recapitalized],” Holmes said during a March 26 speech organized by the Air Force Association. “We’re looking to see how much of the infrastructure that supports it needs to be recapitalized, and if we were going to build it now, instead of building it in 1960, would we do it different? Do we need to have 10 missiles per crew? Do we need the same communications methods that we have? So we’re going to try to corral the size of that.”
Currently, there are 45 active launch control centers that each command 10 Minuteman 3 silos, which can be activated in the event of nuclear war. There are 450 silos spread among sites in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.
How Does GBSD Fit in with Budget?
Early Friday morning, the Senate approved a GOP-led Fiscal Year 2016 budget resolution that would include $524 billion for defense activities and $96 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) spending, about $45 billion above President Barack Obama’s FY 2016 OCO request. The House budget resolution also outlines $96 billion for OCO funds. In coming weeks, both chambers will work on a compromise for the broad bill. The Budget Control Act cap of $524 billion excludes the OCO account. It remains unclear how the Defense Department will fund its full portfolio of nuclear modernization, and how OCO could fill any gaps. “It’s a giant bill. It’s going to be hard for the nation to take on,” Holmes said. “If we’re going to fund that, I think it should start with a debate on what our national strategy is, what does deterrence mean for us in the 21st century, how are we going to provide that?… As far as how they’ll finance that, that won’t be my decision to make.”
AF Leadership Cautions about OCO
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James on March 23 shared concerns that Congress’ “first shot out of the barrel” involved two budget resolutions that aligned with the BCA level. She cautioned that OCO isn’t a “panacea” for the service’s funding shortfalls. During the Carnegie Nuclear Conference, James said: “The Overseas Contingency Operation can be a fine thing to help build or to help fund some people issues and some readiness issues and all of the things that are happening overseas, but you can’t fund modernization programs that are multi-year out of one-year money like OCO.”
