The Congressional Research Service sent and updated a report to Congress Feb. 12 on the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.
“Despite the [Joe Biden] Administration’s objections, Congress has provided continued funding for the missile and the associated warhead,” the “In Focus” report said.
The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop the warhead for the Navy’s nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N), mandated in the same bill. Biden’s administration repeatedly asked Congress to kill SLCM-N, but lawmakers declined to do so.
The following year, the 2025 NDAA provided the option for the Defense Department to select an alternative warhead for the missile and directed the Naval Secretary to establish a separate program for SLCM-N development in the fiscal year 2026 budget request.
When the Exchange Monitor asked Dave Hoagland, NNSA’s acting deputy administrator for defense programs, in January at the annual Nuclear Deterrence Summit if the Donald Trump administration would fund SLCM-N, he said, “it’s impossible to predict that.” He cited uncertainty over future Congressional funding levels.
Congress told the NNSA that the SLCM-N warhead should be a variant of the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead that the agency is already working on, and the missile would be deployed on Virginia-class submarines. This past summer, then-NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the agency was also looking at other possible warhead fits.
