The nation’s top nuclear commander says the Pentagon’s plan to develop a new sea-launched, low-yield nuclear cruise missile should not be considered a “bargaining chip,” despite language in the recent Trump nuclear doctrine that suggests the U.S. may give up the weapon if Russia changes its behavior.
“I don’t like the term ‘bargaining chip.’ The capabilities that we propose in the Nuclear Posture Review are in response to the threat,” Gen. John Hyten, commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, told lawmakers Tuesday.
“If that threat changes, then my military advice will change. But if that threat doesn’t change, then my advice will say that we need those capabilities in order to respond to the threat,” Hyten said in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
He described the threat as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated doctrine to use low-yield nuclear weapons in conventional warfare in order to “escalate to win,” which Putin first-described in 2000.
Hyten, who is in charge of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, was questioned about a paragraph in the Pentagon’s recently released Nuclear Posture Review that suggested the U.S. would abandon plans for the new sea-launched missiles if Russia were to back off some aspects of its aggressive nuclear doctrine and reduce its stockpile of non-strategic “battlefield” nukes.
“If Russia returns to compliance with its arms control obligations, reduces its non-strategic nuclear arsenal, and corrects its other destabilizing behaviors, the United States may reconsider the pursuit of a SLCM (Sea-Launched Cruise Missile),” the U.S. nuclear doctrine states.
“I’m not a diplomat. I’m not a politician. Diplomats need to work those issues with our adversaries,” Hyten said. “I hope that they do, but my job as a military officer is to look at the threat, understand the threat, and propose capabilities to this body to deliver to the military so that we can respond to any threat that exists.”
Hyten pointed out that while the U.S. is moving ahead with replacing a small number of submarine-launched ballistic missiles with a smaller low-yield version, the plans for a sea-launched cruise missile remains years in the future.
The U.S. won’t even decide until next year whether the proposed missile will be designed for a submarine or a surface ship, Hyten said.
Hyten also said the new low-yield option would not increase the overall number of U.S. nuclear weapons, and instead would replace capabilities that were phased out when it appeared Russia was acting more as a partner than a rival.
