STRATCOM CHIEF REGISTERS CONCERN ABOUT CMRR-NF DEFERMENT

Gen. Robert Kehler, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, acknowledged yesterday that fiscal belt tightening has forced difficult funding choices for the nation’s nuclear forces, but he singled out concern for the decision to defer construction of the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility at Los Alamos National Laboratory. The facility, as recently as last year, was considered one of the pillars of the Administration’s plan to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and arsenal. “I’m concerned about that,” Kehler said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday when pressed by Sens. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) and Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.). “I am concerned about our ability to provide for the deployed stockpile. And that is my number one concern here. So I have some concerns.” Faced with budget cuts, the Obama Administration in February deferred the multi-billion-dollar project for up to five years, instead choosing to use several different facilities to meet the project’s needs. Those options are expected to include using existing space at Los Alamos as well as facilities at the Nevada National Security Site and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, all of which are currently being studied. “I will be concerned until someone presents a plan that we can look at and be comfortable with and understand that it’s being supported,” Kehler said. “So I’m not saying there isn’t a way forward. I am hopeful that there is. We just don’t have it yet. And until we do as the customer, I am concerned and I will remain concerned until we go a little farther down the road.” 

Kehler faced heavy criticism from many members of the panel about the Administration’s decision to scale back its modernization plans, including the deferment of the CMRR-NF, and request $7.58 billion for the NNSA’s weapons program, well short of the $7.9 billion it had projected was needed a year ago. “We are at a time of great danger, as I see it,” Sessions said. “The defense budget is under great stress. We’re looking to save money wherever we can save money, and it appears to me that the Administration does not have the kind of rigorous intellectual support from missile defense or nuclear weapons necessary to ensure we keep these programs on track.” Kehler said that many of the concessions made to the nation’s modernization plan were manageable, including the decision to slow production of refurbished W76 warheads for the Navy, but noted that the path forward was not perfect. “I believe while all of these budget reductions, I think, in a perfect world, we would say we really wish we didn’t have to deal with budget reductions, but the fact of the matter is that they are there and the nuclear force was not immune,” he said.