Ex-government officials this week urged the Senate Armed Services Committee to support continued modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons and production infrastructure in the face of a rising China and a hostile Russia.
Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), chair of the committee that sets policy for defense agencies including the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) on Tuesday said the U.S. is now in “a new trilateral nuclear competition era” with China and Russia, and that the “rules must change with the ascendency of China.”
Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), the conservative ranking Republican of the committee who planned to retire from the Senate Jan. 3, said “it’s clear to me that we are not prepared for this reality” of facing multiple nuclear-armed peer adversaries.
The committee leaders on Tuesday echoed many of the worries they expressed last week when they presided over the confirmation hearing of Air Force Gen. Anthony Cotton, who was nominated to lead U.S. Strategic Command: the interservice group that operates U.S. nuclear weapons.
At the top of Tuesday’s hearing, Madelyn Creedon, a former principal deputy administrator at the NNSA, called for a “permanent, credible, safe, secure, reliable U.S. nuclear deterrent” in the face of China’s “surprising” nuclear buildout and Russia’s decision to launch a “previously unthinkable land war in Europe.”
Creedon said that “new programs will most likely be late and the handoff from old to new will be difficult” under the ongoing, $1-trillion refurbishment of nuclear weapons, delivery systems and carrier vehicles started in 2016 under the Barack Obama administration.
Creedon also urged the committee, “don’t give up on arms control.”
