A new Columbia-class nuclear submarine currently under development will likely end up costing taxpayers an “eye-watering” $100 billion over the program’s lifetime, Navy Secretary Richard V. Spencer said on Monday.
Spencer and the secretaries of the Air Force and Army discussed the challenge and high costs of modernizing the U.S. nuclear triad during a rare public gathering together at the Center for Strategic and International Studies think tank.
The Trump administration has recently completed a review of its nuclear forces and the Congressional Budget Office found last year that it will cost $1.2 trillion over 30 years to modernize the Cold War-era triad.
“All of sudden you’re talking about the submarines and there is a number that will make your eyes water. Columbia will be a $100 billion program for its lifetime. We have to do it. I think we have to have big discussions about it.”
The triad is made up of a Navy submarine fleet, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and nuclear bombers and is designed to deter a strike from other nuclear powers, particularly Russia. Last week, Gen. John Hyten, the head of U.S. Strategic Command, touted the power of the U.S. submarines, saying Russia and China “do not know where they are and they have the ability to decimate their country if we go down that path.”
Even with a coming budget hike, the Navy is still looking for a viable plan and the funding to increase its fleet to 355 ships. It has already made advanced plans to buy the Columbia-class ballistic missile subs to replace the Ohio-class that now form that leg of the triad.
“The underwater aspect to date does seem to be the most elusive [to adversaries] but it comes with a price,” Spencer said.
Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said she “faces the same challenge” with her service, which manages the U.S. ground-based nuclear missiles and bomber fleet.
“We are modernizing all three legs of the triad and the nuclear command-and-control at the same time in both the Navy and the Air Force. It’s a challenge,” Wilson said.
The Air Force will be doing modernization and engineering work over the next five years to update its legs of the triad but over the next decade big investments will be needed, she said.
“The nation is going to have to make the decision on the actual purchase of these systems within this 10-year window,” Wilson said.
As the country weighs the costs, it should also consider investing in other ways to head off a nuclear conflict, Army Secretary Mark Esper said.
“Many of us grew up with the triad as part of the Cold War but we have a new capability these days that provides the president more options and creates its own deterrence and that is missile defense,” he said.
Congress approved over $4 billion in supplemental missile defense spending at the end of last year and that area of defense seems in line for more increases in the upcoming Pentagon budget.
Former Virginia Sen. John Warner, who also served as Navy secretary, attended the CSIS event and warned that the U.S. nuclear deterrent has a growing strategic problem.
He said the Trump administration secretaries should consider greater emphasis on the submarine component, which has the highest invulnerability.
“It is in stone that we have it and we shall always have it. We’ve got to begin to make tough decisions on the various allocations between air-sea, sub-sea and land,” Warner said.
