Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) praised the Defense Department for its “clear commitment” to modernizing the nuclear triad despite tough economic times during Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces panel. However, he noted that sustaining and modernizing the triad will not be cheap, citing an estimated $120 billion cost just over the next decade. A modernized tried must be affordable, said Sessions, the panel’s ranking member. “Uncontrollable cost, perhaps more than anything else, could be a threat to our ensuring it in the future,” he asserted. He expressed his support “to do whatever is possible to modernize our nuclear weapons,” but he also acknowledged that he’s “been taken aback” by the estimated cost of $8 billion or more to build a new uranium-processing facility and a plutonium-handling facility for the nuclear weapons complex. Madelyn Creedon, assistant secretary of defense for global strategic affairs, said the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2013 budget request generally protects the nuclear modernization initiatives despite “some adjustments in some of the schedules of programs,” like the two-year slip to the fielding of the Ohio-class replacement submarine. “Where we are all concerned, and where we have work to do, is in the outyears,” she said. (Creedon-Weber joint statement)
Hypersonic ARRW Readied for Booster Flight
March 8, 2021
An AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon hypersonic missile is being readied for its first booster flight at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Air Force announced March 5. The missile that flies within the next month will not be an all-up round. Instead, the test will run the missile through…