U.S. Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) is leading a group of Democratic lawmakers in urging reconsideration of plans to modernize all three legs of the U.S. nuclear triad.
The proposed Senate resolution, filed Friday, calls on the president to ensure that the modernization program for weapons and delivery systems being carried out by the Departments of Defense and Energy is both affordable and feasible, and to update the plan as needed “with the goal of ensuring that such proposals focus on refurbishment to ensure security and safety as well as efficiency of existing weapons and delivery systems.” Priority should be given to programs that will ensure the U.S. sustains a viable nuclear deterrent without endangering funding for other programs needed to defend the United States against conventional and nonconventional threats, according to the resolution, co-sponsored by Franken and 12 other Democratic senators.
With the end of the 114th Congress on Jan. 3, there is little time for the resolution to advance.
The current program to replace today’s nuclear-armed ICBMs, strategic bombers, submarines, and air-launched cruise missiles is projected to cost upward of $1 trillion over 30 years. President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to pursue modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent, but has not publicly discussed details of his plan.
Trump’s pick for defense secretary, retired Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, in a 2015 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee wondered aloud whether the triad could be reduced to a nuclear “dyad,” the Associated Press reported earlier this month.
