Congress wants the National Nuclear Security Administration to slide about $5.5 million from the maintenance budget for the W80 cruise-missile warhead into a Pentagon study to select a design for a nuclear-tipped, sea-launched cruise missile, according to a compromise 2020 spending bill that would fund the agency through September.
The Donald Trump administration proposed studying the cruise missile in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. The Pentagon has since started an analysis of alternatives for the proposed weapon, which would culminate with a decision on how to build the missile. In theory, the agency could pick anything from modifying an existing weapon to designing something entirely new.
Congress, however, wants the agency to consider whether such a sea-based missile could be a variant of the planned air-launched, Long Range Standoff Weapon cruise missile that Raytheon and Lockheed Martin are designing for the Air Force. To help determine if such commonality is possible, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) would contribute financially to the Pentagon’s design study for the sea-based weapon.
The NNSA requested some $86 million for W80 Stockpile Services in 2020 but would get about $80 million, under a consolidated appropriations act the House handily approved Tuesday by a 280-138 vote. The tithe removed for the sea-launched cruise missile study would be slotted into a new line item in the NNSA’s Research, Development, Test and Evaluation account.
The Air Force Wants to start deploying the Long Range Standoff Weapon in 2025 or later. The service plans to buy about 1,000 of these missiles. To tip the missiles, the NNSA will provide W80-4 warheads: a refurbished version of the W80 warhead used on the Air Force’s current fleet of Air-Launched Cruise Missiles. The civilian agency is trying to make its first production unit W80-4 — a copy of the weapon that is stripped down for analysis to prove its design can be mass produced — in 2025. The NNSA’s Cost Estimating and Program Evaluation office has said 2026 is a more likely date for that milestone.
As part of the 2020 National Defense Authorization Act Congress passed this month, and which Trump plans to sign, lawmakers ordered the Pentagon to explore whether it would be possible to “increase commonality” between a sea-launched cruise missile and the Long-Range Standoff Weapon — for example, by determining whether technology developed for air-launched weapon could be used in a sea-launched missile. The Pentagon will have until 90 days after Trump signs the National Defense Authorization Act has to report back to Congress about those possibilities.
Ninety days after the 2020 budget bill becomes law, the NNSA would have to give Congress a progress report about the sea-launched cruise missile’s analysis of alternatives. Ninety days after that, the NNSA would have to rough out cost and schedule options for the nuclear work on each sea-launched cruise missile option the Pentagon is considering. Trump must sign the budget bill by Friday to avert a government shutdown.
