A review of nuclear modernization is among the top items for Kathleen Hicks, if the Senate confirms her as Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Hicks, 50, has been involved on the inside and outside of the Pentagon since 1993, most recently as a senior vice president of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). She was one of a dozen bi-partisan members on the Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States, which reviewed the 2018 National Defense Strategy. The latter posited China and Russia as the pacing threats for United States while also noting ongoing threats from North Korea, Iran, and terrorist groups.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served in that capacity under former Pres. George W. Bush and Barack Obama, introduced Hicks virtually at her Feb. 2 confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).
At the hearing, she told lawmakers that she believed in the nuclear triad, which “must be modernized in order to be safe, secure and credible.”
“I am worried about the state of the readiness of the nuclear triad, and, if confirmed, that’s an area I would want to get my team in place and start to look at right away,” Hicks said in response to a question from SASC Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).
But she later told SASC members during the hearing that a review of nuclear capabilities would not be a rubber stamp for ongoing modernization efforts, including the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD).
In September, the Air Force awarded Northrop Grumman a $13 billion contract to build GBSD, the successor to the Boeing Minuteman III ICBMs.
Northrop Grumman plans to deliver a fully integrated GBSD by fiscal 2029 and to achieve full operational capability for GBSD by 2036.
The U.S. Air Force said last year that it plans to begin military construction as early as 2023 to house GBSD at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo. Construction at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., and Minot AFB, N.D., to house GBSD is to begin in 2026 and 2029, respectively.
Defense analysts in Washington, D.C., and Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, have suggested that DoD could cut GBSD while maintaining nuclear deterrence.
If confirmed, Hicks will be the highest ranked woman ever to serve in a Senate-confirmed civilian position at the Pentagon.
This story first appeared in Weapons Complex Morning Briefing affiliate publication Defense Daily.
