Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
1/30/2015
The Obama Administration is set to ask for a significant Fiscal Year 2016 budget increase for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s weapons program and relatively flat funding for its nonproliferation account, weapons complex observers and Congressional aides told NS&D Monitor this week. The Administration will unveil its FY 2016 budget request Monday, and the NNSA’s weapons program is expected to see a request of approximately $8.8 billion, up from the $8.31 billion the Administration asked for last year and the $8.23 billion enacted by Congress in the FY 2016 omnibus spending package. “Pretty consistently it’s clear that the weapons program is going to get a big bump up,” one Congressional aide told NS&D Monitor. “The big issue for appropriations overall is that the President is exceeding the [Congressionally established] budget caps—both on defense and non-defense sides—and the request is going to be dead on arrival.”
Published reports this week indicate that President Obama will request $561 billion in defense spending, an increase of $38 billion over spending caps established by 2011 Budget Control Act. The defense spending encompasses all Pentagon spending, but also includes spending on nuclear weapons and nonproliferation activities.
The Administration is expected to request approximately the same amount of funding for the nonproliferation account as it did in FY 2015. It asked for $1.55 billion, and Congress plussed up the funding request to $1.64 billion, $86 million more than the budget request. The Mixed Oxide Fuel Fabrication Facility, which the Administration tried to put in cold standby last year before being blocked by Congress, is expected to receive more than $300 million, which is enough to keep the project running but less than funding levels needed to keep construction moving at an optimum pace, officials said. The nonproliferation request is also expected to be significantly impacted by a slowdown in cooperative nuclear security work with Russia after Moscow has made it clear in recent months that it is cancelling cooperative programs with the United States over increased tensions between the countries.
Weapons Program Budget Continues to Increase
The increase for the weapons program largely mirrors previous budget projections. In its FY 2014 request, the Administration said it planned to ask for $8.9 billion in FY 2016 as part of a continuing steady increase in funding for the program. According to the FY 2015 budget projections, funding for the weapons program would increase each year, peaking at $9.7 billion. The weapons program budget has gradually increased every year since FY 2008 as part of efforts to modernize the nation’s nuclear weapons complex and nuclear arsenal.
In FY 2016, the Administration is expected to accelerate funding for the W88 Alt 370 while maintaining funding projections for the W76 and B61 life extension programs. It also is expected increase funding for the Uranium Processing Facility, which received $335 million in FY 2015, though it remains unclear how the Administration will handle the refurbishment of the cruise missile warhead. Last year, the Administration delayed the completion of a First Production Unit on the Long-Range Standoff Weapon from 2024 to 2027. In the FY 2015 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress mitigated the delay, requiring that a FPU on the warhead be completed by Sept. 30, 2025, unless the commander of U.S. Strategic Command certifies that a delay to 2026 doesn’t negatively impact the nation’s nuclear deterrence needs.
Air Force Global Strike Command chief Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson sounded positive when asked about the program on the sidelines of a Defense Writers Group breakfast this week. “We’ve made the down-select on the warhead,” he said, referring to a decision to use the W80 warhead for the life extension program. “Now we’re seeing if we can shift the program to get the two sides, the DoD and DOE part, aligned right. I’m cautiously optimistic we’re moving in the right direction.”
