The Trump administration’s just-released Nuclear Posture Review includes plans for two new weapons: A lower-yield variant of the warhead currently deployed atop submarine-launched long-range missiles, and a submarine-launched cruise missile, or SLCM, that would also carry a low-yield warhead.
But Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told House lawmakers Tuesday the U.S. doesn’t really want to bring back the SLCM (pronounced “slick-em”), a Cold War weapon that President George H.W. Bush stopped deploying and President Barack Obama eliminated from the U.S. nuclear arsenal.
Mattis says the proposal to develop, build and field a new SLCM, which the Pentagon says would take seven to 10 years, is really just a bargaining chip for negotiations with the Russians, who the U.S. says are violating a Cold War-era treaty that bans intermediate-range missiles.
The U.S. says Russia’s covert deployment of ground-launched cruise missiles in Kaliningrad is in flagrant violation of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev.
“I want to make certain that our negotiators have something to negotiate with,” Mattis said at a House Armed Services Committee hearing. “We want Russia back into compliance. We don’t want to forgo the INF, but at the same time, we have options if Russia continues to go down this path.”
The INF Treaty banned both intermediate-range ballistic missiles and ground-launched cruise missiles with a range of 620 miles to 3,400 miles, as well as and shorter-range ballistic missiles with ranges from 31 miles to 62 miles.
“I don’t believe we can go into a negotiation and get something for nothing,” Mattis said. “The idea once again is to keep our negotiators negotiating from a position of strength.”
Because there is no program to actually begin development of the SLCM, the Pentagon could provide no estimate of the costs.
The current program to modernize all three legs of the triad of bombers, submarines, and land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles is estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost at least $1.2 trillion over 30 years.
