The Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration would have just three months to begin development of a nuclear sea-launched cruise missile when the Senate passes its 2024 defense policy bill.
Still under consideration by the Senate as of Wednesday, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) would require that within 90 days of passage the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment establish a program to develop the new sea-launched missile, also called SLCM-N.
Parallel development of a sea-launched version of the W80-4 warhead would launch at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). That requires a formal request through the Nuclear Weapons Council to the NNSA.
The Biden administration, which wants to cancel the SLCM-N, zeroed out funding in its 2024 budget request for the weapon, which it considers redundant to the W76-2 low-yield, submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missile warhead. It is the second year the White House has proposed blanking the cruise missile development program.
Now, Congress has once more come to SLCM-N’s rescue. The Senate committee’s NDAA would have the weapon ready to deploy on Navy submarines by fiscal year 2035, which begins Oct. 1 of next year.
To meet that deadline, the Senate also included $75 million for development of the sea-launched version of the W80-4 warhead and another $190 million for the missile through the Navy’s Precision Strike Weapons Development Program.
