[House Hearing, 117 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.A.S.C. No. 117-42]
HEARING
ON
NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT
FOR FISCAL YEAR 2022
AND
OVERSIGHT OF PREVIOUSLY AUTHORIZED PROGRAMS
BEFORE THE
COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES HEARING
ON
FISCAL YEAR 2022 BUDGET REQUEST
FOR NUCLEAR FORCES AND ATOMIC ENERGY DEFENSE ACTIVITIES
__________
HEARING HELD
JUNE 10, 2021
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
46-865 WASHINGTON : 2022
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES
JIM COOPER, Tennessee, Chairman
JAMES R. LANGEVIN, Rhode Island MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio
JOHN GARAMENDI, California JOE WILSON, South Carolina
SETH MOULTON, Massachusetts DOUG LAMBORN, Colorado
SALUD O. CARBAJAL, California, Vice MO BROOKS, Alabama
Chair ELISE M. STEFANIK, New York
RO KHANNA, California SCOTT DesJARLAIS, Tennessee
JOSEPH D. MORELLE, New York LIZ CHENEY, Wyoming
JIMMY PANETTA, California MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida
STEVEN HORSFORD, Nevada
Grant Schneider, Professional Staff Member
Ryan Tully, Professional Staff Member
Zach Taylor, Clerk
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
STATEMENTS PRESENTED BY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS
Cooper, Hon. Jim, a Representative from Tennessee, Chairman,
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces............................... 1
Turner, Hon. Michael R., a Representative from Ohio, Ranking
Member, Subcommittee on Strategic Forces....................... 1
WITNESSES
Dalton, Melissa, Acting Secretary of Defense for Strategy, Plans,
and Capabilities, U.S. Department of Defense................... 2
Dawkins, Lt Gen James C., Jr., USAF, Deputy Chief of Staff for
Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration, U.S. Air Force... 7
Verdon, Charles P., Acting Administrator, National Nuclear
Security Administration........................................ 4
Wolfe, VADM Johnny R., Jr., USN, Director, Strategic Systems
Programs, U.S. Navy............................................ 6
APPENDIX
Prepared Statements:
Cooper, Hon. Jim............................................. 33
Dalton, Melissa.............................................. 36
Dawkins, Lt Gen James C., Jr................................. 70
Turner, Hon. Michael R....................................... 34
Verdon, Charles P............................................ 46
Wolfe, VADM Johnny R., Jr.................................... 57
Documents Submitted for the Record:
[There were no Documents submitted.]
Witness Responses to Questions Asked During the Hearing:
[The information was not available at the time of printing.]
Questions Submitted by Members Post Hearing:
Ms. Cheney................................................... 90
Mr. Langevin................................................. 83
Mr. Moulton.................................................. 88
Ms. Stefanik................................................. 89
Mr. Turner................................................... 84
FISCAL YEAR 2022 BUDGET REQUEST FOR NUCLEAR FORCES AND ATOMIC ENERGY
DEFENSE ACTIVITIES
----------
House of Representatives,
Committee on Armed Services,
Subcommittee on Strategic Forces,
Washington, DC, Thursday, June 10, 2021.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 11:03 a.m., via
Webex, Hon. Jim Cooper (chairman of the subcommittee)
presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JIM COOPER, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
TENNESSEE, CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES
Mr. Cooper. The hearing will come to order. I would like to
begin by thanking our distinguished panel of witnesses for
testifying today. We look forward to hearing from each of you.
First, Ms. Melissa Dalton, the Acting Assistant Secretary of
Defense for Strategy, Plans, and Capabilities; Dr. Charlie
Verdon, the Acting NNSA [National Nuclear Security
Administration] Administrator; Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe,
Director of U.S. Navy Strategic Systems Programs; and
Lieutenant General James Dawkins, U.S. Air Force Deputy Chief
of Staff for Strategic Deterrence and Nuclear Integration.
In reading through your testimonies, we are reminded that
the work of this subcommittee is probably the most important,
technical, and consequential of any committee in the House. I
would also like to point out the astonishing continuity over
recent years in funding and support of the triad and nuclear
programs. Seldom do you see this level of bipartisanship in
modern-day Washington, but I am glad that it is occurring in
our number one defense priority.
I ask unanimous consent that the remainder of my opening
statement will be inserted in the record and I turn over the
opening statement to my colleague, Ranking Member Mr. Turner.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Cooper can be found in the
Appendix on page 33.]
STATEMENT OF HON. MICHAEL R. TURNER, A REPRESENTATIVE FROM
OHIO, RANKING MEMBER, SUBCOMMITTEE ON STRATEGIC FORCES
Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your
holding this hearing and I appreciate your bipartisan
commitment to these topics. I too will ask that my statement be
entered into the record, and I am going to summarize a few of
the points.
But, one, I know, obviously, we are under a great deal of
pressure having gotten the budget so late, so I am very
concerned about the effects of a CR [continuing resolution] and
I am looking for the witnesses to discuss what that might be.
Certainly, in the nuclear enterprise and the nuclear
modernization, the effects of a CR are felt much more strongly.
I also want to point out that Congress has the ability to
change this, not just by getting our work done but because the
fiscal year is statutory not constitutional. And we should
probably change this. It could pick up at least 3 months a year
for the Department of Defense if we made the fiscal year the
calendar year.
I am disappointed in the top line in the President's
budget. It does not keep up with inflation as we look to those
of our adversaries--China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran--that
are modernizing. I think that there is a lot that we need to be
focusing on and we are going to certainly be in a resources
crunch. There has been a lot of bipartisan work as you have
said, Mr. Chairman, on all the issues that fall under our
committee.
I am very concerned and I think we are all shocked to have
heard the news of the Acting Secretary of the Navy appearing to
take action to zero out the sea-launched cruise missile. This
is something that is incredibly important. We just saw in the
news also that the Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff,
apparently, were not informed. We know that the Nuclear Posture
Review isn't underway, and yet we have the first steps towards
actions that would be unilateral disarmament.
And, of course, even for those who wish to reduce nuclear
forces, the best way to accomplish that is through arms control
and you can't achieve arms control if you unilaterally give
away assets that could be both beneficial to deterrence and/or
beneficial to negotiations. I am looking forward to our
witnesses today to discuss their thoughts on that breaking
news.
With that, Mr. Chairman, I yield back and the rest of my
statement will be entered into the record.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Turner can be found in the
Appendix on page 34.]
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
The first witness, Ms. Dalton.
STATEMENT OF MELISSA DALTON, ACTING SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR
STRATEGY, PLANS, AND CAPABILITIES, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
Ms. Dalton. Chairman Cooper, Ranking Member Turner, and
distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today. May I request permission to
submit my written statement for the record and provide brief
opening remarks?
Mr. Cooper. Without objection, so ordered.
Ms. Dalton. Thank you. As I described to the subcommittee
in April, the United States today faces a complex global threat
environment characterized by increasingly sophisticated and
militarily capable strategic competitors, destabilizing
regional dynamics, and accelerating technological changes that
pose significant dangers.
China is rapidly becoming more capable and assertive, and
concerns regarding its nuclear modernization and expansion are
increasing. Russia's comprehensive modernization of its nuclear
capabilities, over 80 percent complete, includes the addition
of new dual-capable systems that threaten the United States and
its allies and partners. We are confronted with multifaceted
deterrence challenges across domains from both competitors,
which add increased escalation risks, all making deterrence
more challenging. And strategic risks emanating from both North
Korea and Iran add significant complications to the strategic
threat picture.
For these reasons, nuclear deterrence remains the
Department's highest priority mission, but more is needed to
confront these growing, multifaceted threats. That is why
Secretary Austin has directed a National Defense Strategy
focusing on integrated deterrence, an effort to address threats
and opportunities across conventional, cyber, space, hybrid,
information, and nuclear domains.
With regard to nuclear deterrence, our nuclear forces
remain essential to ensure no adversary believes it can ever
employ nuclear weapons for any reason, under any circumstances,
against the United States or our allies and partners without
risking devastating consequences. That is why the nuclear triad
remains the bedrock of our strategic deterrence, but we must
modernize our aging capabilities to ensure a credible deterrent
for the future.
The President's fiscal year 2022 budget submission supports
our efforts to modernize the nuclear triad. It funds all
critical DOD [Department of Defense] nuclear modernization
requirements, helping to ensure that modern replacements will
be available before aging systems reach the end of their
extended service lives. The fiscal year 2022 budget request for
nuclear forces is $27.7 billion. This includes $15.6 billion to
sustain and operate our current nuclear forces, and $12.1
billion for recapitalization programs.
This modernization effort is at a critical juncture given
our aging platforms. As Secretary Austin has stated, U.S.
nuclear weapons have been extended far beyond their original
service lives and the tipping point where we must
simultaneously overhaul these forces is now here. Updating and
overhauling our Nation's nuclear forces is a critical national
security priority. Even as we continue with nuclear
modernization, we will continually review ongoing programs to
assess their performance, schedule, risks, and projected costs.
The Department will always seek to balance the best capability
with the most cost-effective solution.
Our pending review of nuclear policy and posture, which
will be nested under the National Defense Strategy, will ensure
that we have the right capabilities to meet our priorities now
and in the future. The review will allow us to examine our
nuclear posture and policy with an eye towards acting on
direction in the administration's Interim National Security
Strategic Guidance that the United States takes steps to reduce
the role of nuclear weapons in our National Security Strategy
while ensuring our strategic deterrent remains safe, secure,
and effective, and that our extended deterrence commitments to
our allies remains strong and credible.
In so doing, our review will focus on the vital interests
of the United States and our allies and partners. It will be
informed by current and projected global security environment,
trends, threats posed by potential adversaries and the
capabilities of the United States and our allies and partners
to address those threats; the roles of nuclear weapons; a
strategy to reduce those roles and the impacts of policy,
posture, and capabilities on strategic stability; and the risks
of miscalculation.
Consultation with allies will be a core component of this
review and we have begun engaging with allies to ensure that
their views are heard and understood before reaching any
conclusions. Unique to this review and consistent with the
interim guidance, preserving strategic stability will be a
significant area of analysis in the review. Steps in this
respect have already started with the extension of the New
START [Strategic Arms Reduction] Treaty, and further analysis
based on the President's priorities will occur as our strategic
reviews proceed. We look forward to keeping Congress informed
as we conduct these reviews.
Mr. Chairman, let me conclude by thanking this subcommittee
for its previous support for nuclear deterrence and the
opportunity to testify. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Dalton can be found in the
Appendix on page 36.]
Mr. Cooper. Thank you very much, Ms. Dalton.
Every witness statement will be inserted for the record by
unanimous consent, so I will ask you gentlemen to limit your
remarks, as Ms. Dalton did excellently, to about 5 minutes.
The next witness will be Dr. Verdon.
STATEMENT OF CHARLES P. VERDON, ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, NATIONAL
NUCLEAR SECURITY ADMINISTRATION
Dr. Verdon. Thank you.
Chairman Cooper, Ranking Member Turner, and members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today.
On behalf of our entire national security enterprise workforce,
I express our appreciation for this subcommittee's strong
bipartisan support for NNSA's nuclear security missions as
demonstrated most recently in fiscal year 2021 National Defense
Authorization Act, and fiscal year 2021 budget for the
Department of Energy.
We meet today against the backdrop of a world marked by
growing security challenges. China and Russia are modernizing
their nuclear arsenal, investing significant resources in
delivery platforms that have made clear that nuclear weapons
will be a vital element to their statecraft. At the same time,
the risk for proliferation of nuclear weapons and other weapons
of mass destruction pose profound and existential dangers.
Recognizing these global security challenges, the
President's fiscal year 2022 budget request for $19.7 billion
for NNSA reflects support for the three enduring missions for
which Congress charged the NNSA in 2000: ensuring the safety,
security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear stockpile;
reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation and nuclear
terrorism around the world; and providing nuclear propulsion
for the U.S. Navy's fleet of aircraft carriers and submarines
that is critical to the U.S. national security and our allies.
[Inaudible.]
Dr. Verdon. [continuing]. Stockpile. Our alignment and
synchronization----
[Inaudible.]
Dr. Verdon. [continuing]. To improve. The fiscal year 2022
budget request enables NNSA to execute its nuclear warhead and
infrastructure modernization efforts begun under the Obama/
Biden administration. The administration is beginning to
undertake a formal review of efforts to modernize our nuclear
deterrent to include DOD delivery platforms, the nuclear
weapons required under those platforms, and the NNSA
infrastructure needed to produce and maintain those weapons.
Regardless of the review's specific findings, so long as we
retain a nuclear arsenal we must have the infrastructure,
science, technology, and engineering to produce and maintain
the nuclear weapons stockpile. Unfortunately, the NNSA's
production infrastructure has atrophied considerably, both in
terms of the physical infrastructure and the capabilities
needed within those facilities. Continued recapitalization is
imperative. The potential impacts to the U.S. deterrent if not
addressed are no longer over the horizon.
Of particular importance is reestablishing the capability
to manufacture plutonium pits. This capability is needed to
address risks due to plutonium aging, degrading warhead
performance, improve warhead safety and security, and provide
the ability to respond to evolving threats to the U.S. nuclear
deterrent. We fully recognize that the potential impacts of
plutonium aging on warhead performance are uncertain at this
time. Plutonium didn't exist--at least we didn't know about
it--until, you know, before 1940, and simply has not been in
existence on the planet long enough to have concrete data on
how our pits will behave when they are approaching a century
old.
Given this, it is an assessment of our best technical
experts in the weapons program, the three NNSA laboratory
directors, and independent experts like the JASONs, that the
risk is just too high not to have the capability to manufacture
plutonium pits at a rate sufficient to refresh the stockpile's
pits before they exceed 80 to 100 years in age.
In addition to our mission to ensure the continued
effectiveness of the nuclear stockpile, nonproliferation also
remains an important and growing priority. The NNSA's Defense
Office of Nuclear Nonproliferation is critical to implementing
the President's call to lock down fissile material and
radiological materials around the world. The fiscal year 2022
budget request enables NNSA's Defense Office of Nuclear
Nonproliferation to continue to work worldwide with our
partners to prevent state and non-state actors from developing
nuclear weapons or acquiring materials usable in nuclear
weapons.
With regards to our third mission of providing nuclear
propulsion for the U.S. Navy, the Office of Naval Reactors
remains at the forefront of technological developments in naval
propulsion by advancing new technologies and improvements in
naval reactor performance. This preeminence provides the U.S.
Navy with a commanding edge in naval warfighting capabilities
and the fiscal year 2022 budget request enables NNSA's Office
of Naval Reactors to continue their programs which are so vital
to the security of our Nation and the allies.
In closing, despite the challenges posed by COVID
[coronavirus] pandemic, I am pleased to report that the NNSA
did not miss a single major milestone or DOD requirement. This
achievement is a testament to the professionalism in NNSA's
world-class workforce, the leadership of our sites, and their
commitment to national security. In fact, I am happy to report
that as we speak today, the system first production unit for
the W88 Alt [Alteration] 370 is being assembled at Pantex. So I
thank you again for the strong support of this committee and
the opportunity to testify before you today and I stand ready
to answer any questions you may have.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Verdon can be found in the
Appendix on page 46.]
Mr. Cooper. Thank you very much, Dr. Verdon. Now we will
hear from Vice Admiral Johnny Wolfe.
STATEMENT OF VADM JOHNNY R. WOLFE, JR., USN, DIRECTOR,
STRATEGIC SYSTEMS PROGRAMS, U.S. NAVY
Admiral Wolfe. Chairman Cooper, Ranking Member Turner, and
distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify. I would like to thank this subcommittee
for its continued support of the Navy's nuclear deterrent
mission. As you heard from Admiral Richard, Commander, U.S.
Strategic Command, nuclear deterrence underwrites every U.S.
military operation and capability on the globe and serves as
the backstop for both our national defense and the defense of
our allies.
The Nation's nuclear triad of intercontinental ballistic
missiles, strategic bombers, and ballistic missile submarines
serves as the bedrock of our ability to deter major power
conflict, assure our allies and partners, achieve U.S.
objectives should deterrence fail, and hedge against an
uncertain future. The Navy has provided unwavering and singular
mission-focused support to the sea-based leg of the triad for
over six decades.
We must sustain today's deterrent while modernizing for the
future. This falls into four concurrent lines of effort. First,
we must maintain the current D5LE [D5 Life Extension] missile
inventory and provide the necessary operational support to
sustain Ohio-class submarines through their service lives. This
is being accomplished through an update to all of our
subsystems. All of our life extension efforts remain on track
and our current program will support the deployment of all
existing warheads. We must also recapitalize our strategic
weapons facilities to continue to support and sustain SSP
[Strategic Systems Programs] and operations that enable our
continuous at-sea presence.
Second, we must continue to work with our partners at PEO
[Program Executive Office] Columbia to ensure that the
transition between Ohio-class and Columbia-class submarines
stays on schedule. For SSP, this requires a seamless transition
of the current D5LE weapons system and missile inventory onto
the new Columbia class. During this time of transition, we will
ensure that the Navy's portion of the nuclear triad remains
credible by introducing the W93 Mark 7 to rebalance the
stockpile of W76 and W88s and meet STRATCOM [United States
Strategic Command] requirements.
Third, it is imperative that we start the work on a future
missile and corresponding weapons systems now. This next
generation of the current D5LE missile, a missile in service
since 1989 and boasting a remarkable history of 182 successful
flight tests is called D5LE2. D5LE2 will yield multiple
benefits in missile performance to include extending its
service life. D5LE2 is required to completely outload our
Columbia-class SSBNs and ensure that Trident remains credible
in the face of a dynamic threat environment. A D5LE2 missile
must be developed, tested, and produced with a lead time
sufficient to deploy on Columbia-class Hull 9 in fiscal year
2039. It will then be backfitted for the first eight hulls of
the class.
Lastly, one of the greatest advantages the United States
has is its alliances and partnerships. As the U.S. project
officer for the Polaris Sales Agreement, I will continue to
support the U.K.'s [United Kingdom's] sovereign deterrent for
today's Vanguard-class submarines and their successor, the
Dreadnought-class. For decades, U.S. policy has recognized that
the independent British nuclear deterrent adds to global
stability. Under the 1958 Mutual Defense Agreement and the 1962
Polaris Sales Agreement, the United States has provided
assistance and material consistent with international law to
the U.K. deterrent program. Without this assistance, the cost
and schedule risk to maintain the U.K.'s independent deterrent
would rise significantly, thus creating additional challenges
for the U.K. in sustaining its nuclear contribution to NATO
[North Atlantic Treaty Organization] alongside the U.S.
None of these four lines of effort are possible without
investment in our people, our infrastructure, and our
industrial base. Military, civilian, government, and
contractor, the men and women of SSP are working hard to
deliver a safe, secure, and effective strategic weapons system
today that will serve us well into the latter half of the
century. They remain my number one priority in order to ensure
continued program success. Nuclear modernization will take time
to complete, so work towards these ends must start now and
cannot be delayed. It is only through your continued support
that the Department's top modernization priorities can be
achieved.
As the 14th director, it is my highest honor to represent
the men and women of SSP comprising approximately of 1,700
sailors, 1,000 Marines, 300 coastguardsmen, and over 1,300
civilians and over 2,000 contractor personnel. It is my most
critical goal to ensure they are poised to execute the mission
with the same well of success, passion, and rigor both today
and tomorrow as they have since our program inception in 1955.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on behalf of
the men and women who make deterrence of major power conflict
their life's work. I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Admiral Wolfe can be found in
the Appendix on page 57.]
Mr. Cooper. Thank you, Admiral Wolfe. And now we will hear
from Lieutenant General James Dawkins.
STATEMENT OF LT GEN JAMES C. DAWKINS, JR., USAF, DEPUTY CHIEF
OF STAFF FOR STRATEGIC DETERRENCE AND NUCLEAR INTEGRATION, U.S.
AIR FORCE
General Dawkins. Chairman Cooper, Ranking Member Turner,
and distinguished members of the subcommittee, thank you for
inviting me to appear before you today to represent the
dedicated men and women of the Air Force's nuclear enterprise.
Along with my teammates here at the table, the airmen of the
United States Air Force remain committed and work tirelessly to
continuously provide the Nation a safe, secure, effective, and
credible nuclear deterrent. This commitment has become even
more significant given the age of our systems and the nature of
the current security environment.
The first time in our Nation's history we are on a
trajectory to face two nuclear-capable, strategic peer
adversaries. Russia has multiple types of nonstrategic nuclear
weapons deployed or in research and development including
short- and close-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and
anti-ship missiles. Three of Russia's novel strategic systems
and its nonstrategic nuclear weapons are not subject to the New
START treaty's limits or verification regime. The People's
Republic of China [PRC], as our principal pacing threat, is
nearing completion of its own nuclear triad and will likely at
least double their nuclear stockpile this decade. The pace of
the PRC's weapons development is very concerning.
The U.S. nuclear triad remains the primary military means
by which the Department of Defense provides deterrence against
existential threats to our homeland and allies. The triad has
remained the force posture of choice for each President and
Congress since the 1960s. The flexible options it provides the
President complicates an adversary's decision calculus should
they wish to pursue aggression against the United States or our
allies. However, the triad is showing its age as many of its
weapon systems and infrastructure date back to the early 1960s.
The President's fiscal year 2022 budget fully funds our
modernization efforts to provide the necessary improvements to
counter our potential adversaries' increasing capabilities.
The Air Force continues to achieve significant progress in
our modernization programs to include the Ground-Based
Strategic Deterrent [GBSD], Long-Range Standoff Weapon [LRSO],
and B-21 Raider. The GBSD is leveraging cutting-edge digital
engineering and has met every major milestone of the past 5
years. The Long-Range Standoff cruise missile and the B-21 are
also on schedule. The B-52 modernization efforts are on track
ensuring the aircraft remains relevant through the 2050s. In
partnership with the United States Space Force, our nuclear
command, control, and communication system remains secure and
effective as we modernize capabilities ensuring future
connectivity for leadership and strategic forces in an
increasingly challenging cyber environment.
The Air Force is committed to providing stable requirements
and delivering these modernized weapons system programs on time
and on budget. However, we can't do this alone and we ask for
the continued support of the Congress to give stable
authorization and appropriation across both the Department of
Defense and the National Nuclear Security Administration
enterprise. We owe this not only to our Nation, but also to our
airmen who are in some cases manning the same missile sites and
flying the same aircraft as their grandparents did. Yet we
demand and, in fact, depend on our success against threats that
are far more lethal and sophisticated than their grandparents
could have imagined to accomplish a mission that is vital to
our Nation's security and survival. I thank the committee for
your advocacy and I look forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of General Dawkins can be found in
the Appendix on page 70.]
Mr. Cooper. Thank you, General Dawkins. I appreciate the
testimony of all the witnesses. I am grateful for your
expertise and your patriotism.
All members will be limited to 5 minutes in questioning to
more evenly distribute the questioning, and if there is time
perhaps, we can do a second round. I will start off and have a
question or two for Ms. Dalton.
You characterize in your testimony that Russia has already
80 percent recapitalized their nuclear forces. What percentage
of completion or recapitalization would you put on our--
America?
Ms. Dalton. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman, again for
having the opportunity to testify. On balance, I would have to
get back to you in terms of relative percentage of the U.S.
program, but I can tell you that as the Secretary has stated,
we are at a critical point of being relatively behind and the
need to modernize and recapitalize across all three legs of the
triad.
So the investments that are made in the fiscal year 2022
budget submission do seek to modernize for the GBSD or the
Columbia-class and for LRSO, and these are critical
capabilities to ensure that we can keep pace with the
challenges before us, principally China. And your question
pivoted directly off of Russia, but I think, you know, the
intelligence records suggest that China's nuclear modernization
is accelerating at a very concerning rate. So as we proceed
with our Nuclear Posture Review, we are going to be closely
looking at both of those threat factors to help inform upcoming
programmatic decisions.
Mr. Cooper. Thank you. I was about to turn to China, which
seems to be, what, doubling or more their nuclear capabilities,
plus they have road-mobile or underground or other advantages
that we lack. And I believe they are not constrained by any
treaty, right? We at least have the New START extension with
Russia but that does not apply to China.
General Dawkins, you mentioned that there are three novel
Russian nuclear systems that are not covered by New START.
Could you remind us what those are?
General Dawkins. Yes, sir. There is the underwater--the
submarine with a nuclear-armed torpedo, a very large system
there meant as, I guess, a weapon of vengeance to come up on
our coast and detonate. Very hard to defend against, of course.
There is a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile that
they have that again, not to have--they are under development
on these systems, I am sorry. Under development on these
systems that they would be able to use and, of course, they
could certainly deliver, and then--and they are very difficult
to defend against those cruise missiles.
And the third one is--I am failing to remember. I can take
that for the record. But I know they have got a host of other
systems they are using and the small nuclear weapons that they
have put on some of their air defenses and other things, sir.
[The information referred to was not available at the time
of printing.]
Mr. Cooper. Thank you. Those are my questions. I will turn
it over now to the ranking member.
Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. In my opening
statement, I referenced the news making of the Acting Secretary
of the Navy with respect to taking a step for the cancellation
of the sea-launched cruise missile, a missile that both General
Hyten and Admiral Richard have openly spoken as fans of. We
know that Secretary of Defense and the Chief of Staff have both
reported in the news that they were unaware of this action and
were not consulted. Admiral Richard said that he heard about it
on the news.
Admiral Wolfe, can you tell me what you know of this action
and if you could also then in your answer, in addition to what
is happening over at the Pentagon with the sea-launched cruise
missile that has had this subcommittee and committee's support,
can you tell us about, you know, what Russia's programs are and
what their sea-launched cruise missiles are capable of? Because
certainly we need to take into consideration what our
adversaries are doing whenever we take a step to review our own
commitment to our own systems. Admiral.
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, sir. Thank you for the question, sir.
So I had read the SECNAV [Secretary of the Navy] memo. I had
not--I was not privy to it before it was actually signed. But
my understanding is for the SECNAV it was part of a deliberate
process to start the dialogue for building the next POM
[Program Objective Memorandum]. I would point out, however,
sir, nuclear modernization for the program of record for D5LE2,
for Columbia, for TACAMO [Take Charge and Move Out], for our
portion of the air is solid and it will continue and should
continue to be fully funded to all of the estimates. I would
also point out that in starting that dialogue, he does point
out that it is not a decision. It is meant to get the dialogue
started. And, of course----
Mr. Turner. Well, I have got to tell you just to insert, it
is a hell of a way to start a dialogue is to call for the
canceling. But go ahead. You were going to talk about our
adversaries, because I do have limited time.
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, sir. Understand. Yes, and from an
adversary perspective, I think what General Dawkins talked
about and what we all know is as Russia continues to look at
how they can build some of these what they call tactical
nuclear capabilities, certainly cruise missiles are a big part
of that. Because I believe that they look at that as an
advantage that they can even in some of their dialogue on
escalating to deescalating that provides a significant
advantage to them.
Mr. Turner. Thank you.
Ms. Dalton, you know, this announcement in the news comes
just on the precursor of the President sitting down with Putin.
I believe that unilateral disarmament is certainly, you know,
as a policy, idiotic because we don't have a support for our
deterrence and certainly we have no bargaining chips when we
meet with our adversaries. Doesn't this weaken President Biden
as he goes to sit down with Putin and say, ``Hey, we should
start more arms control negotiations,'' where his own staff are
talking about unilaterally stopping programs that are both
important to our deterrence and may be the subject of arms
control negotiations?
Ms. Dalton.
Ms. Dalton. Representative Turner, in the President's
budget request for fiscal year 2022 from a policy perspective,
the Department had intended to provide a modest amount of
funding for SLCM [sea-launched cruise missile] and plans to
revalidate that requirement in the course of the Nuclear
Posture Review [NPR]. That is still our intent to look closely
at this program in the NPR. And I would say in terms of the
administration's approach to our arms control negotiations we
do not support unilateral disarmament, but we----
Mr. Turner. Well, this point that you made here, so the
Nuclear Posture Review, has it commenced?
Ms. Dalton. It is on the cusp of commencing, sir, so it
is----
Mr. Turner. It hasn't even commenced, but yet you have
people in the chain of the administration already targeting
systems for canceling. Isn't that--I mean isn't the Nuclear
Posture Review supposed to be like adversary risks-driven,
capabilities-driven? How is it that one system could be singled
out when you haven't even begun the Nuclear Posture Review?
Ms. Dalton. Sir, it is our intent to look closely at the
SLCM program within the context of the Nuclear Posture Review
and make programmatic decisions for fiscal year 2023 based upon
that objective analysis.
Mr. Turner. Ms. Dalton, when you were before us before, the
last time, we were talking about there were some proposals that
people had tried to latch onto for Minuteman life extension
programs that were--it was known as like the ``best 200.'' You
said that you don't have an ongoing study, you are just
updating previous studies. We don't have a copy of the previous
best 200 study that was completed at the end of the Obama
administration. Would you commit to providing that to the
committee?
Ms. Dalton. Happy to follow up with that, sir.
Mr. Turner. Okay. If you could get that to us this week, we
would appreciate it. We are coming back next week, as you know,
and it would be very timely for us to be able to look at it.
General Dawkins, you have indicated that the Ground-Based
Strategic Deterrent is $38 billion less than the Minuteman III
life extension program. Could you elaborate on that? It keeps
coming up as a discussion item. Not only are we gaining with
the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent additional capabilities,
but it is clear from your understanding that it is both the
most cost-effective path, correct?
General Dawkins. Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. And
that is true, sir. The GBSD, from the minute that--or from the
time we did the analysis of alternatives back in 2014, it was
shown to be more cost effective than life-extending the
Minuteman III over the course of the entire weapons system out
to 2075. That $5 billion difference back then in 2014 has since
grown to $38 billion now. So again, it is $38 billion more
expensive to life-extend the Minuteman III. This is primarily--
yes, sir.
Mr. Turner. No, I was going to jump to my last question to
go to Dr. Verdon. Real quickly, you have given us in classified
session the justification for ensuring that we needed both Los
Alamos and Savannah River in order to be able to hit our 80
plutonium pits. What can you tell us in open session of the
need for the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility?
Dr. Verdon. So again, we would say all of our analysis
still indicates that the two-site solution that we identified
is the most susceptive in terms of both capacity, schedule, and
cost way for us to implement and meet the 80 pits per year.
When we look at the schedule, when we look at the cost, it
still comes out to be the most effective way for us to
implement and to achieve that requirement is to take advantage
of both the existing facilities at Los Alamos and at Savannah
River to implement pit production.
Mr. Turner. And you are not able to just do it all at Los
Alamos, correct?
Dr. Verdon. Doing it, no. It would require building a whole
new facility at Los Alamos to be able to do it. PF-4 is not
large enough.
Mr. Turner. Thank you.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman. The next questioner will
be Mr. Langevin.
Mr. Langevin. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank our
witnesses for their testimony today. Let me begin with this.
The President's budget request included an additional $700
million for the Columbia above the expected fiscal year 2021
estimates due to an updated cost estimate assessment and a
program evaluation review.
Vice Admiral Wolfe, do you believe this assessment is
accurate and that the funding in the budget is adequate?
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, sir. Thanks for the question. So I did
talk to Admiral Pappano from PEO Columbia and yes, sir, based
on the CAPE [Director of Cost Assessment and Program
Evaluation] estimate that was completed in August of 2020,
which is what the new estimate and the reason for the increase
in request for this fiscal year, it is consistent with
everything that the Navy has seen that what the CAPE has done
and we have funded to that CAPE estimate. So yes, sir. We
believe it is accurate.
Mr. Langevin. Very good. Thank you.
Dr. Verdon, so I have been interested for some time now in
developing low-enriched uranium fuel for submarine propulsion.
In doing so would prevent us from having to restart production
of weapons-grade uranium and it also can't be stolen for that
purpose. I wanted to ask for the record, will NNSA continue to
support effort to study the viability of this critical
nonproliferation effort should additional funding be made
available?
Dr. Verdon. We are committed to this and continue to look
at that. We are still working with the administration to
balance the requirements of both the nonproliferation
requirements and also the Navy's operational requirements. So
that still continues to be a study but we are continuing to
look at what are the technical feasibilities of doing it, but
the broader administration is taking a hard look also at the
balance of the nonproliferation goals against the Navy's
operational requirements as well.
Mr. Langevin. Thank you. Thank you.
Vice Admiral Wolfe, in your testimony you mentioned that we
can no longer wait to invest in critical workforce skills and
in complex technologies. What types of programs should Congress
be encouraging?
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, sir. I think with what we do with our
workforce, looking at the critical technologies, things like
rad-hard [radiation hardening] and those that are very unique
to what General Dawkins' organization and what we do, I think
we very much put a premium on education and programs that
encourage our folks to continue their education as well as to
hone their skills for these critical programs.
Mr. Langevin. Thank you. I--again, we need to focus heavily
on a workforce development especially where we have significant
gaps. It is in our national interest to address those gaps
sooner rather than later.
The final question I had for General Dawkins. Are your NC3
[nuclear command, control, and communication] modernization
efforts meeting their scheduled performance and budget metrics?
General Dawkins. Yes, sir. For the most part they are. We
have got--I could go into an acronym soup here, but some of the
new systems to replace our current systems that provide
advanced high-frequency capability to our missile sites and
several other upgrades are again on time and tracking well.
There have been some systems that are producing the learning of
the crew force, if you will, that we are getting our
requirements correct and ensuring that those are going to be on
track for the future. But for the most part, sir, we feel that
we are in a good place but this will take renewed focus or a
constant focus to ensure that we don't get behind.
Mr. Langevin. Okay. Well, this is something that we are
going to continue to track. We look forward to staying in touch
with you on that topic. Those are the questions I had for this
point. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. Cooper. Thank you, Mr. Langevin.
Now, Mr. Wilson.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you, Chairman Jim Cooper and Ranking
Member Mike Turner, for the bipartisan cooperation on putting
together this very important hearing and we appreciate each one
of the witnesses.
And Administrator Verdon, according to the President's
budget, the Critical Decision 1 [CD1], the Savannah River
Plutonium Processing Facility is expected to be released
sometime this month of June. And is that timeline still
accurate, and if so, will that create the first credible cost
and schedule baseline and does the President's budget match
what was revealed through the NNSA's initial review of the
paperwork?
Dr. Verdon. So yes, sir. We are still on track to
accomplish the CD1 approval requests before the Deputy
Secretary and by the middle of this month. And, indeed, the
fiscal year 2022 budget request has the funding in there
necessary that if we get the approval to do the work to
progress towards Critical Decision 2 to continue to mature the
design.
Mr. Wilson. Well, thank you very much. And as you well
know, NNSA is so well thought of at Savannah River Site. We
wish you the best of success.
Additionally, Administrator, I appreciate your opening
comments. I appreciate the very pithy and positive statements
by Congressman Mike Turner all the way from Dayton, Ohio. And
the questioning and restating of the Department of Energy
Secretary Jennifer Granholm; the NNSA nominee, Jill Hrugy; U.S.
Strategic Command commander Admiral Charles Richard--all are on
record supporting the two-sites solution. This shows clear
bipartisan support from among the administrations.
Moving forward, what do you see is the biggest risk to
delay in achieving 80 pits per year by 2030? Is it the funding?
Should this be addressed in future budget requests?
Dr. Verdon. It will be--yes. It will be, what the funding
that will be required will be, you know, one of the key
factors, and then it is also how we manage the supply chain
getting the critical equipment in, in a timely fashion. And we
are beginning to work that issue as we speak to work with
vendors to try to make sure we can optimize that between both
the Savannah River requirements and the Los Alamos
requirements. But certainly identifying the right funding
profile that will--that can be, you know, afforded by the
Nation will be one of the key factors.
Mr. Wilson. Thank you very much.
And, General Dawkins, numerous studies have shown a one-
site pit production solution is cost prohibitive and does not
provide the basic resiliency necessary for our nuclear
infrastructure which is so crucial as we have discussed to have
the deterrence to maintain peace through strength. From a
defense perspective, what are the consequences to the
credibility of our nuclear deterrence limiting pit production
to one site production?
General Dawkins. Sir, thank you for the question. And
having served at NNSA several years ago, I know that they are
challenged with the infrastructure that they have. We work very
closely. We work also with the Nuclear Weapons Council within
NNSA to ensure that the plans that we have are executable. I
think we would--and across the Department, speaking for the
Department--would be challenged to continue with all of our
modernization programs out into the future. It would be
difficult with a single site. Again, I am not the expert on
that. Dr. Verdon, I could defer. I will defer to him, but I
know that our Nation needs to be able to produce pits and
having everything in one location might be, you know, it might
be more strategically valuable to have a couple.
Mr. Wilson. Well, we actually--Savannah River Site looks
forward to working collaboratively with Los Alamos and to
achieve pit production which is so critical since many of the
pits are 60 years or older. And so we have got to modernize,
and I want to back you up and work with Chairman Cooper and
Ranking Member Turner.
And, finally, a question for Secretary Dalton, and that is
the Biden administration has expressed its intent to develop
its own Nuclear Posture Review indicating a change in U.S.
nuclear policy. What parts of the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review
does the administration plan to change and what is the timeline
for delivery?
Ms. Dalton. Thank you for the question. So we are just
beginning the Nuclear Posture Review and we will be conducting
that as I noted nested within the National Defense Strategy.
Statutorily, we are required to deliver to Congress the NDS in
January of 2022, so we are aiming for a similar timeline for
the completion of the NPR. But as noted in my last honor to
testify before you all, I am happy to come up and brief you on
some of our emergent findings of the NPR as we proceed this
summer.
And in terms of the review of declaratory policy, that is
obviously a Presidential-level decision. And so even as the
Department progresses in its work on specific DOD aspects of
nuclear posture, we will also be engaged in an interagency
process to review the nuclear policy implications. But our
North Star, to begin with, is the Interim National Security
Strategic Guidance which indicates that this administration
will take steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our
National Security Strategy while upholding our extended
deterrence commitments to allies and partners and ensuring a
safe, effective, and secure nuclear deterrent.
Mr. Wilson. Well, we look forward to working with you. I am
confident about our Savannah. I now yield back.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Now Mr. Moulton is recognized.
Mr. Moulton. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank
everybody for coming here today and participating in this
discussion and my colleagues on the committee because this
couldn't be a more important topic.
Secretary Dalton, I would like to start with you.
Hypersonic weapons, we have talked a lot about them recently,
and they have the potential to be highly destabilizing,
particularly if we pursue them blindly in a tit-for-tat with
PRC or Russian development without carefully developing the
operational concepts for their use. On the other hand,
conventional hypersonic missiles could certainly change our
adversaries' calculus in a way that reduces our reliance on
nuclear weapons for strategic stability.
So, Ms. Dalton, do you believe we have a clear vision for
how we integrate hypersonic capabilities into the U.S. arsenal
in a way that deters rather than potentially increases the risk
of a nuclear response?
Ms. Dalton. Thank you, Representative Moulton. It is a
great question and I think this is why the Secretary has
encouraged us in the course of the NDS to look at,
holistically, at an integrated deterrence so we are not looking
at any one domain or system in a silo. So, you know, to take
the specific mention of hypersonic missiles, this
administration is proceeding with investments in that
capability because we think it is important to be able to keep
pace with key challengers such as China and Russia to be able
to respond with speed and at distance.
But as we are developing these capabilities, as you
mentioned the importance of concepts of operations, we are
doing a lot of leg work behind the scenes in classified
channels to ensure that as we are developing out this
capability we are doing so responsibly, and at present are only
making investments in a conventional capability when it comes
to hypersonic missiles. But this will be among the capabilities
that we are looking at through this frame of integrated
deterrence so that we can account for potential escalation
risks as we look across different scenarios involving,
particularly, China and Russia.
Mr. Moulton. Madam Secretary, if I may say, integrated
deterrence and some other things you have said are music to my
ears and hopefully to the ears of others on the committee. But
in a lot of ways you have succeeded in saying a lot of good
things without answering the question. It seems pretty clear
that we don't have a strategy. And while it must be developed
in classified terms, I understand that, it also needs to be
clearly communicated to our adversaries which can't be entirely
classified. So I look forward to hearing more about how you
develop this. We have to have these operational concepts made
clear before we spend billions of dollars on taxpayer money to
develop weapons that we may not need or could actually make our
strategic situation worse.
Let me move, if I may, to General Dawkins and Admiral
Wolfe. Thank you both very much for your calls. We discussed on
the phone in our extended conversations the importance of not
only developing a highly technically qualified workforce, but
retaining them. And I am anxious to hear how you measure your
progress. What we are doing today is clearly not adequate. We
are losing too much talent and it is going out the door quicker
than we can count. How are you actually measuring your progress
in better training, retaining, attracting, and retaining
personnel?
General Dawkins. Representative, thank you for that
question. And that is something that is foremost on our mind
particularly as we get, or going into the bow wave of
modernization where all of these programs are ramping up.
Whether it is finding workforce inside the Air Force itself or
out in the industrial complex, that is something that OSD
[Office of the Secretary of Defense] tracks closely that we
track in the Nuclear Weapons Council and the Air Force is
focused on that as well.
The way we track that is we do keep track of where--of our
ability to hire. That is, you know, at times challenging
because of the nature of the work we do and security
clearances, but we do work with local universities. For
instance, out with the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrence out at
Utah, they work with local universities and other places to
recruit these folks and bring them in and then offer the
incentives that they can to actually retain them. And the
broader Air Force----
Mr. Moulton. I am afraid I am just about out of time and
Chairman Cooper is quite strict with us as he should be. But if
you could just take this for the record and share with us some
of the statistics, the ways that you actually track this so we
can see measurable progress on these fronts that would be very
helpful.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Lamborn.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you hear me okay?
Mr. Cooper. Yes.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay, thank you.
Admiral Wolfe, I have a question for you, a background
question about the sea-launched cruise missile, but first I
just want to make a comment about the Acting Secretary's
unilateral decision. It appears to me that he has gone rogue
and I don't say that lightly. It appears to me that he has gone
rogue because the people above him and the people below him are
denying any knowledge of this decision and seem to be
disavowing the decision. And, secondly, it comes at a horrible
time. It really does damage to President Biden's position vis-
a-vis Mr. Putin and these upcoming discussions, so the timing
could not be any worse.
But back to you, Admiral Wolfe. For background, what kind
of capability does it give the United States and our strategic
posture to be able to have the capability and flexibility that
a sea-launched cruise missile provides?
Admiral Wolfe. Sir, at a very high level I can answer that.
I really believe that Admiral Richard could really give you in
a classified setting what the real capabilities. But what I
would tell you is, it gives--if you think about deterrence, it
gives you another decision tool for the President and for
STRATCOM. And what it really does is it causes yet another
calculus thought that the adversary has to have before they
think that we would have to use something bigger than a sea-
launched cruise missile. So it does provide many options to
continue this deterrent thought process.
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you so much.
General Dawkins, I have a couple of questions for you. I am
going to focus in on the MILCON [military construction]
projects that are intended to be accomplished out at Vandenberg
Air Force Base and for software at Hill Air Force Base in
support of GBSD. If those MILCON projects were not funded in
this year's NDAA [National Defense Authorization Act] and
appropriation bills, how much would that set back the GBSD
program and how detrimental would that be?
General Dawkins. Sir, thank you for the question. And as
you are aware, the Vandenberg Space Base, Space Force Base is
where we do our testing. We typically do four, what we call a
``Glory Trip,'' ICBM [intercontinental ballistic missile]
launch testings each year. As we transition to GBSD, our first
test, our first flight for the GBSD missile will be 1 December
of 2023. I know that they need to get to start that work out
there at Vandenberg in order to facilitate this test. I would
like to take it for the record though to get you the exact
impacts if we do not get the full funding in the MILCON or it
slips. But I do know there will be impacts, sir.
Mr. Lamborn. And those would be negative impacts.
General Dawkins. Yes, sir.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay, thank you.
Changing gears, General Dawkins, I would like to hear you
respond to something that Admiral Richard pointed out. He said
that if we ever reduce the number of ICBMs or, God forbid,
remove the leg of that triad completely that that would,
``solve a critical problem for China.'' So could you elaborate
on what he was referring to about China's calculus if we
degrade the ability of our land-based leg of the triad?
General Dawkins. Yes, sir. So without ICBMs, we quickly
will turn China into a peer adversary. And so when we look at
how the ICBM force is a ready and responsive force and most
responsive of the legs of the triad, it provides a pretty--it
enhances strategic stability by providing a great deterrent
against an adversary, because they know that if they were to do
us, mean to do us harm as a nation, it would have to be a
fairly large attack for them to do that.
And, in fact, they would be attacking the homeland and that
would--that in and of itself enhances deterrence and will make
them or any central adversary perhaps take a step back and go,
``do we really want to commit to a large-scale attack against
the United States homeland?''
Mr. Lamborn. Thank you. And how serious of a problem is it
for us to not have any kind of treaty or any kind of
verification or knowledge of what China is doing with its
tunnel system, with its ability combined with mobile launchers
to hide the existence of and the number of ICBMs that they
might have?
General Dawkins. So, sir, I am a big believer in arms
control treaties that are verifiable and executable or
enforceable. You know, a lot of our treaties are based on
simply numbers and I think it is important also to look to
capabilities as an important part of that as well.
Mr. Lamborn. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Panetta.
Mr. Panetta. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your
understanding in getting me in to ask questions.
Just real quick, Ms. Dalton, obviously, thanks. Thanks to
all the witnesses for being here and thank you for your
service. But, Ms. Dalton, when does the administration plan to
complete its Nuclear Posture Review and when will it begin and
what exactly will it entail going forward?
Ms. Dalton. Thank you, Representative Panetta, for the
question. So as I mentioned in my opening remarks, the NPR will
be nested within the National Defense Strategy and we are just
commencing the NPR leg, if you will, of the strategic reviews.
We plan to structure it in such a way that there will be
decision off-ramps as we get into the end of the POM build and
into the PBR [President's budget request] season such that, you
know, the objective analysis that we do in the NPR can feed
into programmatic decisions that are relevant for the fiscal
year 2023-27 FYDP [Future Years Defense Program].
In terms of what we plan to cover in the NPR, as noted
earlier there will be a look at declaratory policy which we
will do in concert with the interagency. There will be a
thorough assessment of the security environment. Many things
have changed since the last time there was a Democratic
administration in power that we will need to be cognizant of
and we will look to define based on the integrated deterrence
frame, which I know is still in development and, you know, we
will be able to say more on as we move forward how that relates
to thinking about the use of strategic forces like nuclear
weapons in that deterrence construct. And then as I noted, the
specific implications then for programs and modernization. So
in brief, those are the areas for examination.
Mr. Panetta. Okay. In regards to that and in regards to the
nuclear command and control modernization, do you believe that
there will be a review in regards to the sole launch authority
of the President?
Ms. Dalton. So I know that that is a question that has come
up in some of the early consultations that we have had with
outside groups and we are committed to taking input from all
stakeholders across the nuclear committee to help inform our
review.
Mr. Panetta. And that will include this subcommittee right
here?
Ms. Dalton. Yes, absolutely.
Mr. Panetta. Outstanding. Great. Thank you. I appreciate
that and look forward to working with you.
Mr. Chairman, thank you. I yield back.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Waltz.
Mr. Waltz.
Mr. Waltz. Thank you. Yes, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And
thank you. Thank you to all of our witnesses.
General Dawkins, yes, I think there is kind of a common
criticism or belief out there that ICBMs are on a ``hair
trigger alert.'' Can you tell us about the redundancies built
into the launch system as well as how they are actually
targeted out in the open ocean and how those are built in to
assuage some of those concerns?
General Dawkins. Yes, Representative, thank you for the
question. So that is a misnomer. While the ICBMs are ready and
responsive and we do have crew members, two crew members down
there in the launch control centers awaiting a Presidential
order, it requires an order from the President to be
transmitted through our NC3 systems down to the crew members
and for them to decode any of those orders they get, ensure
that they are verifiably from the President and otherwise.
As far as the process goes, the President, if necessary, if
we are under attack of some sort, the President has--we have a
means to bring the President into a conference, the Department
of Defense does, and Joint Staff, to ensure, and he can also
bring all of his senior advisors across the national security
complex, and any ones that he wants into this conference to
discuss how to respond. It is a very measured process. And then
the President can decide whether he wants to respond with
nuclear weapons or choose something else.
The great thing about the triad is the President does not
have to use the ICBMs because we have a survivable leg in the
submarine-launched ballistic missile capability. So that is an
example of the great attributes that the triad brings. So the
President does not have to launch on attack or launch on
warning, he can wait and gather more information before he has
to make a decision, because he has a submarine force.
Mr. Waltz. Great, thank you. And that leads me to my next
question. This committee heard testimony from Admiral Richard
that if the ICBM leg of the triad was allowed to atrophy
further that he would need to put bombers and refuelers back on
alert. Do you have a sense--and this is for any of the
witnesses--of how much that would cost? And is it safe to
assume that this cost was not factored into the $38 billion in
savings by choosing the GBSD over Minuteman III life extension?
General Dawkins. Representative, that was not a factor in
the cost of any of the studies in analysis. We don't have an
analysis right now that says how much extra that cost will be.
I call it a transfer cost. If you do something with one leg of
the triad, you may have transfer costs associated with it if
you transfer other missions to the remaining two legs. With the
bomber force, because we have not been on alert since the early
1990s when we were pulled off of alert and we had hundreds and
hundreds of bombers, actually, you know, able to be on alert,
we would have to do a couple of things. We would have to buy
more bombers, we believe, buy more tankers. We would have to
get more infrastructure and, of course, bring in more people to
be able to sustain that capability, the alert capability.
Just as concerning is how we would--if we didn't have that
extra capability, we would detract from our ability to do our
conventional missions with these dual-role bombers, the B-1 and
the B-52 and soon to be the B-21 and the B-52. So again, it
would be a drain on resources that we would also use, or we
also use today for other combatant commanders.
Mr. Waltz. Thank you. And I don't know, does anyone else
have anything to add on that if we allowed the ICBM to atrophy,
the burden that that puts on the other two legs, cost and
impact on readiness?
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, sir. This is Admiral Wolfe. So I would
tell you from a Navy perspective, as Admiral Richard looks at
what he needs to achieve in support of the President, there is
a possibility that that could call on the Navy to pick up more
of that mission. And I would tell you today, with the platforms
that we have got and the assets we have got, that would be
almost impossible. In the future, that would potentially
require you to build more Columbia-class submarines. That would
potentially cause us to build more assets and look at how we
could work with our partners at NNSA to then provide the
adequate number of warheads that would go on there. So I would
say there would be a huge downstream impact even to the United
States Navy.
Mr. Waltz. So less ICBMs, more bombers, more subs. Is that
just--not to oversimplify, but that is essentially what we
would be facing to keep the same capability, the same deterrent
capability.
Admiral Wolfe. I would just add the word ``potentially,''
sir. Potentially that could be the outcome.
Mr. Waltz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield my time.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Mr. Khanna.
Mr. Khanna. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to
everyone here for your service and testifying.
On April 3rd, 2019, Lieutenant General Richard Clark, who I
know you know, then the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for
Strategic Deterrence, noted that we have one more opportunity
to extend Minuteman III. I would like to understand why that
option of extending it one more time is not a good option and
why that hasn't been explored.
General Dawkins. Thank you, Representative Khanna, and
thank you for the question. So I am familiar with the statement
from 2 years ago. I think it is important whenever we discuss
life-extending the system or GBSD, we understand that we are
talking about a total system replacement. General Clark was
talking about a subcomponent of just the missile itself, and
the missile itself has several key subcomponents. There is 330-
plus parts in it, but there are about 4 subcomponents that
actually have to be modernized or life-extended as well, and we
needed to have made those decisions on some of those key ones
several years ago back in 2015.
Now what he was talking about was just a single-stage
booster and it has three, and he said there would be--that we
might be able to repour the propellant one more time. What we
have found whenever we have repoured the propellant, and
basically you take the booster and you ream the propeller out,
bring it out, you extend the wall of the booster--result in a
50 percent rate. So just doing that we would not have enough
boosters to even contribute to the other stages of the missile
that would have to be replaced at great expense. One example is
the propulsion system rocket engine. We needed to have started
that program back in 2016. That was roughly almost a $7 billion
project back then, and I don't know what it is grown to now.
Mr. Khanna. I respect that as your service and your
expertise. I guess my question is, has there been a
comprehensive study on how much it would cost and what it would
require to extend Minuteman in a cost-benefit analysis between
that choice and the GBSD system?
General Dawkins. Yes, sir. There have been several studies
and the foundation of one is the analysis of alternatives from
2014. It looked at life-extending Minuteman III versus GBSD and
a few other options as well, and it was determined that at the
time, the Obama administration, that we would forego life
extension because it was more expensive. At the time, $5
billion more expensive over the lifetime of a system to do a
Minuteman III life extension versus going with a system
replacement.
Mr. Khanna. Now that was premised, I know there was
something that you submitted premised on 400 deployed ICBMs by
2075. President Reagan would probably roll over in his grave if
he thought we would have that many ICBMs by then when his
vision was to end the nuclear arms race. How was 400 chosen?
General Dawkins. 400 was again decided under the New START
treaty. When we signed up to the New START treaty back in 2010,
the Obama administration, at the time, determined the best way
to meet the requirements of the treaty was to reduce from 450
to 400 ICBMs and then----
Mr. Khanna. I understood that, but how do we know that we
are going to need that many? And I guess, getting to
Representative Waltz's question, isn't it true just
strategically that the ICBMs are a much easier target for an
adversary to take out than the submarine for the Air Force, and
so has there been an analysis whether strategically--we may be
better off, actually, having more submarine than Air Force
capacity going in the future.
Ms. Dalton. Representative Khanna, thank you so much for
all of these excellent questions. In the course of the NPR, we
are going to be taking a hard look at what is required to
maintain a safe, effective, and secure nuclear deterrent while
also attempting to be fiscally responsible given the cost of
these programs. So based on the analysis that General Dawkins
has referenced, we will be interrogating that analysis with the
types of questions that you are asking to ensure that we have
the right balance across the triad.
Mr. Khanna. Well, I think it just is very important. And
also, you know, I know you have talked about the capacity being
improved by the GBSD as opposed to Minuteman, but it is not
clear. What is the vulnerability of the Minuteman? Are there
things that we couldn't do right now? Are we vulnerable in ways
that would be improved by the GBSD or, because they say it
gives us better targeting?
The other question and, frankly, being from Silicon Valley
with cyberattacks is whether we would be better off being in an
analog system than going to a digital system. I mean couldn't
the digital system make us more at risk to an adversary in an
age of cyber warfare? You know, I obviously have deep
admiration and respect for all of your patriotism. I know you
are trying to do what is right for our country. I would just
ask that, you know, if we could have more of an analysis on
some of these questions as alternatives it will help better
understand and help us make more informed decisions.
Mr. Cooper. The gentleman's time has expired.
Mr. DesJarlais.
Dr. DesJarlais. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to talk
about infrastructure for just a minute.
Mr. Verdon, Y-12 National Security Complex is one of the
most important national security assets not only in Chairman
Cooper and my home State of Tennessee, but in the entire
country. However, if you were to look at the state of disrepair
at some of the facilities, you wouldn't know it. We cannot
modernize our nuclear arsenal without having the necessary
infrastructure in place to undertake those programs.
In the fiscal year 2018 NDAA, my colleagues and I worked in
this committee to help address this issue by creating the
Infrastructure Modernization Initiative as well as broader
minor construction authorities to help remedy these problems at
NNSA. While both appear to have been successful in making some
progress, it is abundantly clear that more work still needs to
be done not only at Y-12 but across the nuclear security
enterprise.
So my question for you, is the $20 million minor
construction threshold that you are all operating with adequate
to accomplish desired modernization efforts or does that number
deserve a second look in light of the inflation and increased
construction costs?
Dr. Verdon. So I would say that based on those last points
you brought up that we should take a look at it again, because
certainly when you did give us an increase it was beneficial,
but because of all those things you just cited that benefit is
being eroded relatively quickly. So looking at increasing that
would certainly be a benefit for us.
Dr. DesJarlais. All right. Any idea on what kind of number?
Dr. Verdon. So we were looking at something on the order of
even going up to 30 or up to 40, for that would be for the
types of projects that we would like to be able to move out and
address quickly, based on what we are seeing for costs of
increased labor and concrete and lumber and steel would be the
kind of the range we would be looking at.
Dr. DesJarlais. Okay, thank you.
For General Dawkins and perhaps Ms. Dalton, if we have time
for both of you both to answer on this next question. Many on
this committee, myself included, have concerns about the Biden
administration's Nuclear Posture Review and what it may look
like particularly as it pertains to a sole purpose policy. In
the past, President Biden has expressed support for a sole
purpose doctrine and I am concerned that he may turn his
personal stance into U.S. policy. Those concerns are also
shared by many of our allies like Poland, Japan, the Republic
of Korea who rely heavily on our extended deterrence and
assurance. Admiral Richards, commander of our strategic forces,
has stated that the sole purpose doctrine would be detrimental
to our alliances and our goal of nuclear nonproliferation.
So, first, will this administration consult with our allies
before making such consequential change to U.S. policy? And
second, in your discussions with the decision makers on this
issue, do you believe that they are fully aware of the
consequences the adoption of a sole purpose policy would have
on our alliances and our nuclear nonproliferation?
Ms. Dalton. Thank you for the question. We are absolutely
committed to robust, early and often, consultations with our
allies and partners as we embark on these strategic reviews. In
fact, we have already begun those consultations. I will say
that with the release of the Interim National Security
Strategic Guidance that also prompted a number of questions
from allies and partners in terms of the line on reducing the
role, or taking steps to reduce the role of nuclear weapons.
But, of course, the next part of that is while upholding our
extended deterrence commitments to our allies and partners.
It is one of the top priorities of this administration to
revitalize our alliances and partnerships. So as we move
forward, we will be working in lockstep with our allies and
partners to understand their threat perceptions, their
asymmetry of interests when it comes to China and Russia, what
their comparative advantages are when looking more broadly at
deterrence to include where they may also be making nuclear
contributions, but also as that relates to conventional means
as well in cyber and space. And so we are absolutely committed
to working this in lockstep and that will be a key priority in
determining the way forward on our declaratory policy.
Dr. DesJarlais. Okay. General Dawkins, about 40 seconds
left to chime in.
General Dawkins. Sir, I defer to what Ms. Dalton said that
I believe that all this will be looked at in the NPR, and I
know that the allies want to be involved in the process as well
and that what we provide for extended deterrence is the reason.
And so again, I think the review will address all of those
things. Thank you.
Dr. DesJarlais. Okay. Well, I thank all of our witnesses
today. And, Mr. Chairman, I yield back.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman.
Let's see. Now we will hear from--who is next? Mr. Morelle.
Thank you.
Mr. Morelle. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the opportunity
to be here and thank you to all our witnesses. In particular
it's been good to have conversations with both Admiral Wilson
and General Dawkins and I appreciate that. But I also hope
that, Dr. Verdon, that you still have many friends in the
Rochester area.
I want to just talk a little bit about my district which is
home, in Rochester, New York, which is home to the Laboratory
for Laser Energetics at the University of Rochester. It is a
key part of NNSA's inertial confinement fusion [ICF] program,
which is a critical component of the Stockpile Stewardship
Program, to maintain a safe, secure and effective nuclear
deterrent. And I am glad to have the opportunity right now to
just discuss the fiscal year 2022 budget and, Dr. Verdon, maybe
I can start with you.
For nearly two decades, we have not seen major
infrastructure investment in any of the three complementary ICF
facilities. Meanwhile, China and Russia are building modern
facilities intended to rival or exceed U.S. capabilities. So
can you share, does NNSA have a plan to address research
infrastructure using the ICF sites?
Dr. Verdon. So we are indeed beginning to--we have just
started to look at that. And part of the reviews we had for
2020 in the JASON's review was to begin to lay the foundation
of how we should move forward into the future in the area, the
very important area of inertial confinement fusion, and part of
that was with the focus on helping us identify what potential
future facilities in those areas might look like or what they
should be. So that is certainly, you know, it is in our
process. We are starting that process now and, but the goal
will be to identify what are the future capabilities or
upgrades that would be needed in those areas.
Mr. Morelle. That is encouraging. Do you have a sense of
what the timeline will be for that, Doctor?
Dr. Verdon. So the reports, we are just digesting some of
the conclusions of the reports now so it would probably be--it
is probably going to still be, you know, a few years before we
kind of go through it in quite a bit of detail, but we are
beginning to gather information, as I say, about what people
are thinking. But we are also trying to push the system to make
sure we are not just thinking near term but as you say looking
for the future--what do we really need for the long term?
Mr. Morelle. Right. Aside from the facilities question, the
ICF research is a critical component to the Stockpile
Stewardship Program. So both the NNSA's ICF 2020 report and the
review by the JASON Defense Advisory Panel provide specific
recommendations to strengthen the capability. Are the current
requested funding levels by the administration sufficient to
fully implement these recommendations?
Dr. Verdon. We assess that they are, you know, that we are
supporting the program that we need to conduct in this area.
And so we believe that particularly the 2022 budget does
support what we need to do in this area.
Mr. Morelle. Well, recent budgets have focused on a NNSA
production complex, yet I think it is NNSA science and
technology and engineering capabilities and the associated
expert workforce that underpin our confidence in the safety,
security, and reliability of the nuclear deterrence. So do you
agree that NNSA needs to maintain world lead in scientific
capabilities and workforce, and again does the budget request,
which contains significant cuts to several ST&E [science,
technology, and engineering] areas from fiscal year 2021
levels, sufficiently prioritize those needs?
Dr. Verdon. It is always a risk-benefit, you know, calculus
that we are constantly doing, but we believe that the funding
that we put forward for 2022 supports the highest priority
programs in that area. And, you know, we are even upgrading
some additional capabilities in the science area to include
exascale computing and enhanced capabilities of some critical
experiments in Nevada. So we are doing--adding new capabilities
to address existing gaps.
So again, we are trying to make sure we balance, you know,
all the requirements across the entire Stewardship Program, but
we certainly support that the science area remains key. It
underpins just about every decision we make.
Mr. Morelle. Well, I appreciate that. I am obviously going
to be a fierce advocate for this in our conversations over the
next several weeks.
And, Mr. Chairman, I appreciate very much the time and the
opportunity to have this conversation and I yield back the
balance of my time.
Mr. Cooper. Thank you so much, Mr. Morelle. I appreciate
that.
Mr. Garamendi.
We seem to be having technical difficulties.
Mr. Garamendi. To say the least.
Mr. Cooper. Now we can hear you. Now we can hear you.
Mr. Garamendi. Okay. I am late to the meeting. I am having
trouble with AT&T with whom I seem to be carrying on a long,
long in duration fight. But thank you very much.
I want to follow up on questions that Mr. Khanna had posed
to General Dawkins. Specifically, what I want to get into is
the Minuteman III, the life extension of it. General Dawkins,
under the present plan, it appears as though the Minuteman III
will remain as one of the two ICBM systems for the next minimum
of 15 years, probably closer to 20 years. Is that true that
there will be actually two types of missiles being used over
the next 20 years?
General Dawkins. Congressman, thank you for the question.
And I am not tracking two missiles, I am only tracking the
single Minuteman III missile. There are two warheads though
that go on top of the missile, the W87-0, right now, for the
Minuteman III, as well as the 78.
Mr. Garamendi. That is a good piece of information, but I
was actually talking about your present plan is to have the
Minuteman III in the silos, operative, as well as the GBSD as
the transition takes place. If that is correct then the
Minuteman III is good for at least the next 15, probably closer
to 20 years, as the GBSD comes on line. Therefore, the argument
that the Minuteman III cannot be extended seems to be, to be
incorrect.
Also with regard to the cost, the cost differential that
you spoke to a few moments ago is really based on the next 75
years and extending the Minuteman III over and over again
during that period of time, while the GBSD would be--the
Minuteman III would be in place, as I just suggested, with the
GBSD during the transition period, and then the GBSD would go
forward and it too would have to be life-extended over that 75-
year period of time. Is that correct?
General Dawkins. Congressman, we have to keep the Minuteman
III going until the last GBSD is put in place. So the plan
right now is in 2027 to field the first GBSD. As that first one
goes in, a Minuteman III system comes out and we will harvest
the parts from that Minuteman III as well as all the
infrastructure that supports it to feed back into the supply
system to continue the remaining missiles to keep them on line
until 2036 when we will have the final GBSD in place. So it is
a just-in-time--go ahead, sir.
Mr. Garamendi. Well, so the fact is that the Minuteman III
is being life-extended. You are using the harvesting technique,
which is one way of doing it; the other is to acquire the
necessary parts and pieces to keep the Minuteman III in place.
My second series of questions go to the cost. The current
estimate of the cost of the GBSD system over the next decade,
that is the decade of the 2020s, is somewhere north of $80
billion. What is the anticipated cost in the next decade, that
is the decade of the 2030s?
General Dawkins. Sir, I don't have that broken down by
decade. I do know that over the life of the GBSD program, it is
right now that is out from 2026, if you will, out to 2075, that
was the timeframe that we were using, out to 2075, that it is
somewhere in the number of $264 billion for the total lifetime
cost, that is, of GBSD.
Mr. Garamendi. I think it is very interesting and
questionable of whether you use a 55-year time horizon here to
estimate cost in the system. I will let that go at that point.
I want to turn very quickly to--well, we don't have time
for that. The issue of command and control and the analog
versus digital needs very, very careful attention. I will be
out of time here. I am going to pursue this issue more
completely to completely understand this phase-in, phase-out
just-in-time and the fact that the Minuteman III is actually
going to be life-extended for at least the next, probably the
next 15, more likely the next 20 years. So with that, I yield
back.
Mr. Cooper. I thank the gentleman. I want to thank all the
members for participating. These remote hearings are not always
easy, but I appreciate your participation especially when there
are technical issues. I would like to close the hearing with
this final question for Dr. Verdon.
Dr. Verdon, based on current estimates and planning, will
the NNSA be able to meet the 80 pit requirement by 2030 as
required by law?
Dr. Verdon. So based on our latest information, we assess
that meeting the 2030, particularly at Savannah River, is not
going to be achievable. It will be, right now, our estimate
will be between 2032 and 2035 based on our current conceptual--
our Critical Decision 1 information.
Mr. Cooper. So that is even using Los Alamos and Savannah
River?
Dr. Verdon. Los Alamos we still have high confidence of
achieving 30 pits a year by 2026. It is what we learned in
putting the, you know, 30 percent design complete on Savannah
River and being able to work closely with the vendors and
starting to engage them on the details of the design that we
identified that the Savannah River, getting Savannah River to
produce more reserve pits by 2030 just doesn't look achievable
at this time.
Mr. Cooper. Is there any other way to do it faster?
Dr. Verdon. Not that we have identified, because again a
lot of what we are starting to see is the long poles in the
tent is just ordering the long-lead equipment through the
vendors and then also just the amount of dollars that you can
execute in any given year is also limited. That you could, you
know, you could postulate you could do it, but the amount of
dollars would be a difficult program. So that is why we are
thinking we are trying to work out both technically and just
what we can execute at.
Mr. Cooper. Thank you.
Does the ranking member have a final question at all?
Mr. Turner. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. No. I think we have
covered it all and I appreciate the information we have
received today. It is certainly very helpful.
Mr. Cooper. I thank our distinguished witnesses. The
hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 12:29 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
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A P P E N D I X
June 10, 2021
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PREPARED STATEMENTS SUBMITTED FOR THE RECORD
June 10, 2021
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[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS POST HEARING
June 10, 2021
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QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. LANGEVIN
Mr. Langevin. In your testimony regarding LEU research, you
indicated that the NNSA is continuing to look at the viability of LEU.
However, you also said that one of the main hurdles will be balancing
non-proliferation requirements with the Navy's operational requirements
while you work with the administration on this issue. If in the end,
the R&D program does not validate acceptable LEU fuel density and
higher assay fuel must be substituted to achieve a life-of-ship core,
what is the technical and performance risk of designing next-generation
vessels to accept a core sized for an aggressive LEU design?
Dr. Verdon. The technical and performance risk of designing next-
generation vessels to accept a core sized for an aggressive low-
enriched uranium (LEU) design is high. As discussed in DOE/NNSA's 2016
report to Congress, Conceptual Research and Development Plan for Low-
Enriched Uranium Naval Fuel, naval reactor plants must be compact to be
cost-effective. The size of a submarine directly affects the power
required to propel the ship. The reactor core must fit within the space
and weight constraints of a warship, leaving room for weapons and crew,
while still being powerful enough to drive the ship at tactical speeds
for engagement or rapid transit to an operating area while carrying
sufficient fuel to last for decades. Decades of technological
advancements with highly enriched uranium (HEU) have enabled life-of-
ship cores for Navy submarines, including the COLUMBIA-Class, each of
which will serve in excess of 40 years without the need for refueling.
The replacement of HEU with LEU reduces the energy in the uranium fuel
by more than a factor of four. Implementation of LEU is a major
technical challenge, and is expected to result in ships that are less
capable militarily, more expensive, and that require at least one
refueling over the life of the first ship class to use LEU fuel,
regardless of reactor size. If refueling were reintroduced, force
structure requirements and costs would increase. An example of the
costs associated with refueling impacts on force structure requirements
can be shown with the COLUMBIA Class SSBN. This submarine will not
require a mid-life refueling because it is designed with a 40-year
life-of-ship core. Introducing such a need for mid-life refueling in
the COLUMBIA Class would require the strategic deterrent mission to be
accomplished with more ships (14 versus 12), significantly increasing
acquisition and lifecycle costs by over $40 billion dollars. We do not
deem it practical to work on designs of naval vessels around an
unproven advanced LEU fuel concept, nor to accurately project the
effects of an advanced LEU fuel, because neither the ship performance
requirements nor the fuel technology needed are established. However,
even without working on a design, we assess that attempting to design a
ship to accommodate sufficient LEU for potential life-of-ship operation
would lead to a larger submarine diameter and/or length. Developing a
new ship capable of later acceptance of an LEU reactor core would
involve insertion of substantial margin--resulting in increased hull
size--that would be difficult to estimate and costly to implement.
Mr. Langevin. For both the carrier and submarine applications, what
is the estimated impact on the vessel performance and dimensions of
using LEU fuel, assuming a full power core sized for life-of-ship,
under range of plausible LEU fuel densities that might be validated by
an aggressive R&D program? At what point in the Navy's planning process
must these decisions be made?
Dr. Verdon. As discussed in DOE/NNSA's 2016 report to Congress,
Conceptual Research and Development Plan for Low-Enriched Uranium Naval
Fuel, an advanced LEU fuel system concept might satisfy performance
requirements for an aircraft carrier without affecting the number of
refuelings (current NIMITZ and FORD class carriers require one mid-life
refueling), though at higher acquisition cost. The conceptual plan for
an advanced LEU fuel design would include manufacturing and testing
that would span 15 years and, based on cost estimates in the 2016
Report to Congress, require at least $1 billion in fiscal year (FY)
2016 dollars to establish whether the fuel is viable for use in a naval
reactor design. Subsequent funding would be needed to mature this
conceptual plan and bring it to reality. Assuming successful fuel
system validation and aggressive parallel engineering and manufacturing
development, the estimated cost to deploy an advanced LEU fuel system
in submarines and aircraft carriers is in excess of $20 billion. Not
included in this estimate are additional significant costs associated
with (1) additional operating and support costs at shipyard facilities,
(2) increases in manufacturing costs of advanced fuel, and (3) the
increase in force structure that may be required to offset the loss in
operational availability of submarines undergoing refueling overhauls.
For submarines, the reactor plant must be very compact to be militarily
effective. The reactor core must fit within the space and weight
constraints of a warship, leave room for weapons and crew, be powerful
enough to drive the ship at tactical speeds for engagement or rapid
transit, and carry sufficient fuel to last for decades. An LEU-based
fuel capable of meeting modern U.S. Navy submarine requirements has not
been established, and, therefore we do not deem it practical to work on
designs of naval vessels around an unproven advanced LEU fuel concept.
The Navy would not consider a newly-designed reactor core using LEU
until a new fuel system could be developed and shown to be effective in
a prototypical environment. Decades of technological advancements with
HEU have enabled life-of-ship cores for Navy submarines, including the
COLUMBIA-Class, each of which will serve in excess of 40 years. The
replacement of HEU with LEU reduces the energy in the uranium fuel by
more than a factor of four. Implementation of LEU is a major technical
challenge, and is expected to result in ships that are less capable
militarily, more expensive, and that require at least one refueling
over the life of the first ship class to use LEU fuel, regardless of
reactor size. If refueling were reintroduced, force structure
requirements and costs would increase. For example, introducing such a
need for mid-life refueling in the COLUMBIA Class would require the
strategic deterrent mission to be accomplished with more ships (14
versus 12), significantly increasing acquisition and lifecycle costs by
over $40 billion dollars.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. TURNER
Mr. Turner. When can we expect to see the SLCM-N AOA? Despite the
Acting SECNAV memo on the FY2023 PRB the committee requests to be
briefed on the AOA at the earliest possible date.
Ms. Dalton. The Analysis of Alternatives (AOA) was conducted by the
U.S. Navy and is now complete. I will refer you to our Navy colleagues
who I understand are prepared to brief the Committee on the classified
results of the AOA in the near future. While we are aware of the Acting
Secretary of the Navy memo you reference, the submarine-launched cruise
missile--nuclear (SLCM-N) program will be examined during the upcoming
review of U.S. nuclear posture and policy.
Mr. Turner. When you provided testimony before the SASC last month,
it was stated that GBSD will be $38 billion less than a Minuteman III
LEP. Could you please specifically outline what went into those numbers
and what was excluded, so that the committee can have confidence it was
an apples-to-apples comparison?
General Dawkins. The Department of the Air Force estimated the cost
of a Minuteman III (MM III) Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) to
2075 as $302B. The Office of the Secretary of Defense, Cost Assessment
and Program Evaluation estimated in their Milestone B Independent Cost
Assessment for the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) that GBSD
will cost $264B to 2075, $38B less than the MM III SLEP estimate. The
MM III SLEP estimate includes replacement efforts for booster,
guidance, post-boost, ground system, and command and control elements.
Both estimates include required Research, Development, Test and
Evaluation; Procurement; Military Construction; Military Personnel; and
Operation and Sustainment costs. Neither estimate includes any fuze or
warhead modernization; including this cost would add $24B to each
estimate. Finally, neither the MM III SLEP estimate nor the GBSD
estimate include costs for the deactivation, demilitarization, and
disposal of the MM III.
Mr. Turner. Earlier this year this committee heard testimony from
Admiral Richard that if the ICBM leg of the triad is allowed to atrophy
further, he'll need to put bombers and refuelers back on alert. How
much would this cost?
General Dawkins. Cost estimates to put bombers and tankers back on
alert are not fully mature at this time, as this course of action is
not necessary given the current nuclear triad construct. However,
United States Strategic Command provided a rough cost estimate of
returning bombers to alert in its April 2021 ``Potential Delays to
Nuclear Modernization'' Report to Congress, to which the Air Force
contributed. While this document is classified and cannot be quoted in
this unclassified response, returning bombers to a continuous alert
posture would require major infrastructure improvements, as well as
increased security and manning requirements. Additionally, returning
bombers and tankers to alert status would negatively impact
conventional readiness by reducing the availability for Bomber Task
Force missions, which are currently in high demand by Combatant
Commanders. Finally, returning bombers to alert would likely drive
requirements for additional new tanker and bomber aircraft and
associated manning in order to support Strategic Command's deterrent
mission requirements as well as other day-to-day conventional
requirements.
Mr. Turner. GBSD will not only be a cost saver but will also
provide an upgraded capability over the MMIII. Can you please explain
this upgraded capability and how it will better allow you to address
the Russian and Chinese threat?
General Dawkins. Our potential adversaries are rapidly advancing
both their offensive and defensive capabilities. The currently fielded
Minuteman III ICBM was designed in an era when the cyber-domain did not
exist and anti-ballistic missile capabilities were in their infancy.
The Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) will not only provide an
increase in survivability and accuracy, but will be safer, more secure,
more reliable, and offer enhanced operational flexibility. GBSD
utilizes model-based systems engineering, a Modular Open Systems
Architecture and a modular system interface allowing technology
insertions at a lower cost and implementation at the speed of
relevance. These methodologies will enable the weapon system to quickly
adapt to and counter new, emerging, and currently unforeseen threats
while reducing operations and sustainment costs throughout its
lifecycle. As a full system recapitalization effort, GBSD will address
the complete spectrum of current and future threats in the realms of
electronic, electromagnetic pulse, antiballistic missile, cyber, and
nuclear pre/trans/post attack environments. The Air Force welcomes the
opportunity to provide the Committee further details in a classified
setting.
Mr. Turner. Isn't it true that GBSD will have safety upgrades? Can
you please explain what these are and why they're important?
General Dawkins. Like the currently fielded Minuteman III (MM III),
Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) will contain positive control
measures to prevent the deliberate pre-arming, arming, launching, or
release of nuclear weapons, except upon execution of the President's
orders. Compared to MM III, GBSD will drastically reduce human
proximity to the weapon by limiting the need to access and/or transport
the missile for routine maintenance. GBSD missile components are being
designed for greater time spans between routine maintenance, reducing
exposure while increasing physical security, weapon surety, and safety.
Additionally, GBSD will include positive physical measures against
unauthorized access through a combination of enhanced entry and access
measures, as well as administrative, technical, and cyber security
provisions to protect access to sensitive areas and materials.
Mr. Turner. The FY22 request included a modest increase in the
request for LRSO. Can you please explain how this increase was arrived
at and how it will be spent?
General Dawkins. The FY22 increase in LRSO Research, Development,
Test, and Evaluation from the FY21 President's Budget is primarily due
to an accelerated Engineering and Manufacturing (EMD) contract award in
July 2021 instead of February 2022. Pivoting to a sole source vendor
enabled EMD acceleration based on Raytheon's maturity of design. The
FY22 increase accounts for maintaining manning levels constant across
all of FY22 in order to smooth the transition between the Technology
Maturation and Risk Reduction phase and EMD ($30M/month x 5 months =
$150M). Additionally, the increase accounts for procuring hardware for
testing not originally planned in FY22, such as radiation hardening
testing ($42M), and inclusion of performance incentive fees ($21.5M) as
identified in the Acquisition Strategy (AS). Other prime contract cost
drivers include updated costs for conducting flight tests ($5M) to
begin clearing the B-52 envelope with a design of experiments approach,
and an increase due to Digital Engineering efforts ($3M), which will
provide greater insight into the design as required with the AS.
Government costs include warhead hardware purchases ($18M) through
the National Nuclear Security Administration, which are required to
maintain the synchronization with the warhead development effort.
Government costs also include range costs and survivability ground
tests ($10.8M).
Mr. Turner. Can you please articulate for the committee the
capability LRSO will provide over the current ALCM?
General Dawkins. The AGM-86B Air Launched Cruise Missile (ALCM) was
first fielded in 1982 and was designed for a 10-year service life
against air defenses of that era. Now 29 years past its designed
service life, the LRSO is needed to replace the ALCM. The need for LRSO
is partially driven by ALCM's over-extended service life, however, the
true driver for LRSO is to ensure that a penetrating nuclear cruise
missile capability is retained given the rapidly advancing adversary
integrated air defense system capabilities. The LRSO will impose higher
costs on adversaries' air defenses, requiring large investments and
advances in detection, tracking, command-and-control, and area defenses
to challenge each LRSO.
The Air Force welcomes the opportunity to provide the Committee
further details in a classified setting.
Mr. Turner. Is there potential for the USN to leverage the USAF
LRSO program for SLCM-N?
General Dawkins. Yes, there is potential for the Navy to leverage
the Air Force's Long Range Standoff Weapon (LRSO) program for the Sea-
Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear (SLCM-N). LRSO and its associated
warhead are part of the Navy's SLCM-N Analysis of Alternatives (AoA).
The Navy's TRIDENT II Life Extension 2 (D5LE2) and the Air Force's
Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) programs have forged a strong
relationship, using an Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition &
Sustainment Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), and information is
shared between the programs regularly. If SLCM-N becomes a program of
record, the MOU construct developed for D5LE2 and GBSD could be
utilized as a model to create a similar relationship for LRSO and SLCM-
N.
Mr. Turner. I'd like to express my appreciation that full funding
was included to achieve the military requirement of producing 80
plutonium pits per year by 2030. This is specifically $475 million for
the Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) and $350
million for Los Alamos Plutonium Facility 4 (LAPF-4). Can you please
describe in detail just how much more expensive it would be to do all
80 pits per year at LANL?
Dr. Verdon. Producing all 80 pits per year at Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL) would involve greater risks than NNSA's current two
site strategy for plutonium pit production and would have higher
acquisition costs. The additional acquisition expense of producing all
pits at LANL is driven by the need to construct a new nuclear facility
at Los Alamos, rather than repurposing a nuclear facility that already
exists at the Savannah River Site. In terms of mission risk, a
Congressionally-mandated independent study conducted by the Institute
for Defense Analysis (IDA) concluded that producing 80 pits per year at
LANL was a ``very high risk'' approach. Section 3120(c) of the Fiscal
Year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) directed NNSA
to provide a detailed plan for designing and carrying out the entire 80
pit per year (ppy) production mission at LANL. As part of the 2018
Plutonium Pit Production Engineering Assessment (EA), a team of subject
matter experts and Enterprise Construction Management Services
contractors evaluated pre-conceptual design drawings for an option to
achieve 80 ppy in LANL's Plutonium Facility 4 (PF-4) in tandem with new
production module construction. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the
Department of Defense (DOD) affirmed the EA conclusion that a strategy
to produce 80 ppy at LANL in PF-4 or newly constructed production
modules had the highest risk of all options examined, and installation
of additional equipment in PF-4 to achieve 80 ppy could disrupt ongoing
operations to achieve 30 ppy. DOE/NNSA concurs with the risks
identified by the EA and IDA studies regarding the use of PF-4 to
achieve 80 ppy. In addition, PF-4 is currently the only U.S. facility
capable of pit production and other missions, and the facility will
reach its assumed 50-year design life before 2030. Although DOE/NNSA
continues to invest in facility sustainment projects to extend the life
of the facility and reduce public, safety, and operational risks, any
long-term commitment to achieve and sustain 80 ppy at LANL would
require additional production capacity in a new nuclear facility.
Beyond the additional acquisition cost and risk associated with an
investment to produce more than 30 ppy at LANL, there is a potential
production risk associated with concentrating all pit production in a
single location. Two geographically separated plutonium pit production
facilities bolsters resilience from external threats and hazards and
enables flexibility to mitigate impacts of shutdowns, incidents, or
other factors that may suspend operations at a single site.
Mr. Turner. Can you please outline NNSA's track record for meeting
CD-1 cost estimates since 2012 with specific examples of projects that
have come in both under and over budget from CD-1 to CD-4.
Dr. Verdon. Since the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012, NNSA has
approved Critical Decision (CD)-1 for and completed six (6) projects or
subprojects. All projects were completed under budget (i.e. below their
CD-2 baseline cost estimates). Comparing the CD-2 Total Project Cost
(TPC) to the estimated cost at CD-4 (or final closeout cost where
available), the 6 projects had a collective underrun of $159 million
(27%). The table below includes information about the six projects,
including the top end of the cost range approved at CD-1. It should be
noted that the two projects that finished above the top end of their
CD-1 range started as general plant projects (GPP) and as such were
managed outside of the DOE O 413.3B process. They reached CD-1 and
established their cost range before nearly all of the reforms in place
today were initiated.
Mr. Turner. Do you have everything you need in this budget to bring
the W88, W80-4, W87-1, and the W93 in on-time and on-budget.
Dr. Verdon. Yes, the FY 2022 President's Budget Request provides
NNSA the necessary resources to meet the timelines and requirements
associated with these programs.
Mr. Turner. Some have argued that there are too many single points
of failure in the NNSA complex. What are some single points of failure
that give the you most concern?
Dr. Verdon. While DOE/NNSA's priorities are modernizing the weapons
complex and executing all programs of record, there are sub-tasks
critical to meeting these requirements that are single points of
failure. These sub-tasks are Canned Subassemblies and plutonium pit
production; if we fail to manufacture or assemble these critical
components we will be forced to implement mitigation strategies which
challenge our ability to maintain the nation's nuclear deterrent while
enhancing the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U.S. nuclear
weapons stockpile. Single-point infrastructure failures create undue
mission risk. DOE/NNSA's aged, fragile production and testing
facilities are reliant on safety systems and utilities that require
increased maintenance and upgrades to avoid shutdowns. DOE/NNSA is in
the process of replacing the Y-12 National Security Complex's obsolete
Criticality Accident Alarm Systems and is preparing to install a
secondary electrical feed at the Pantex Plant to provide backup power
to the site's data nerve center. Sufficient manufacturing space at the
Kansas City National Security Campus is a significant risk which we are
addressing through short-term leases and longer-term real property
acquisition. Investment is needed in PF-4's fire suppression water
loop, which is a major safety system for pits, to eliminate a high-
risk, single-point failure. Additionally, failing building systems must
be replaced at Sandia National Laboratories' Building 894, which is the
sole producer of power components for the enterprise, until the Power
Sources Capability is operational. Fully funded maintenance and
extended life programs help mitigate the risk of single-point failures,
but even the best maintained systems require major replacement
decisions every 15-20 years. For timely and unexpected infrastructure
failures, minor construction projects are vital for a quick response.
Additionally, aged, high-risk facilities carry significant risks to
sites and surrounding populations. Aggressive risk reduction programs
to prepare these facilities for demolition as soon as possible is
extremely important to addressing some of our most concerning
infrastructure challenges.
Mr. Turner. Where in the NNSA FY2022 budget are we accepting the
greatest risk.
Dr. Verdon. By letter dated August 16, 2021, the Administrator
certified that the FY 2022 President's Budget Request for NNSA of $19.7
billion is sufficient, and there are no unfunded priorities that would
preclude NNSA from meeting FY 2022 Department of Defense requirements
or FY 2022 internal NNSA deliverables.
Mr. Turner. We've heard Secretary Granholm and Dr. Hruby state that
they fully support the two-site solution for pit production. Can you
please articulate the importance of resiliency in the system? Has COVID
played into your resiliency calculation?
Dr. Verdon. The need for a capability to produce 80 pits per year
was identified by the Secretaries of Defense and Energy in 2008 and has
been echoed through multiple administrations. Our Nation is at a point
where we can no longer accept the risk of a single-point failure in the
ability to produce pits needed to meet the military requirements.
Having two geographically separated plutonium pit production facilities
supports resilience from external threats and hazards and enables
flexibility to mitigate impacts of shutdowns, incidents, or other
factors that may suspend operations at a single site. These conclusions
were supported by a Congressionally-mandated independent study
conducted by the Institute for Defense Analysis (IDA), which found that
using Los Alamos National Laboratory as the sole production site for
the full 80 pits per year was a ``very high risk'' approach.
Disruptions to global supply chains caused by the COVID pandemic both
illustrated and underscored the need for robust and resilient
manufacturing capabilities in vital production sectors. Plutonium pit
production is a vital manufacturing sector for national security
missions.
Mr. Turner. How will LANL and SRS work together to ensure lessons
learned at one site are shared at the other?
Dr. Verdon. The Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and the
Savannah River Site (SRS) have been actively sharing lessons learned
since the Nuclear Weapons Council endorsed DOE/NNSA's two-site strategy
for pit production in 2018. The Preliminary Project Execution Plans
(PPEPs) for both the Los Alamos Pit Production Project (LAP4) and the
Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility (SRPPF) state that DOE/
NNSA and DOE field offices--including the Los Alamos Field Office (NA-
LA), Savannah River Field Office (NA-SR), Lawrence Livermore Field
Office (NA-LL), and the Carlsbad Site Office--will provide inputs to
the overall requirements and project execution activities. The SRPPF
PPEP specifically states that: ``During conceptual design and CD-1
development, the SRPPF team sought out and used all available lessons
learned for similar nuclear projects, to ensure that decisions are made
using knowledge gained from past projects and innovative approaches and
good work practices can be incorporated into the SRPPF Project.'' This
process will continue with the preliminary and final design and the CD-
2 development, especially coordination with the LAP4. In addition,
Senior Management Teams (SMTs) are led by NNSA's Office of Production
Modernization and are comprised of Senior Executive Service members
from NNSA's Office of Acquisition and Project Management, NA-LA, NA-SR,
and support offices, including but not limited to nuclear safety,
security, and the Chief Information Officer for both projects. The SMTs
for both the LAP4 and SRPPF projects provide another opportunity to
ensure lessons learned at one site are shared at the other. LANL, the
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and Sandia National
Laboratories are collaborating to support SRPPF, with Integrated
Project Teams (IPTs) that maintain a high level of awareness of the
project to ensure integration between the work at each site. LANL has
established a single associate lab director organization responsible
for plutonium delivery which allows for a single point of coordination
and integration. DOE/NNSA has also provided incentives in the Corporate
Performance and Evaluation Plan for contractors at these sites to
coordinate, integrate, and execute both projects at LANL and SRS in the
most advantageous manner in support of the overall mission. In addition
to routine collaboration on activities involving manufacturing process
design, equipment selection, technology readiness assessments, nuclear
and criticality safety strategies, and pit production workforce
development initiatives, LANL and SRS have established a formal
Knowledge Transfer Program. Under the auspices of the Knowledge
Transfer Program, personnel from SRS relocate temporarily to work and
train in LANL's Plutonium Facility-4, performing actual pit production
operations. Continued expansion of the Knowledge Transfer Program is
vital to the success of NNSA's two site strategy for plutonium pit
production.
Mr. Turner. Can you please sum up your understanding of Russian
nuclear-capable SLCMs.
Admiral Wolfe. Congressman, thanks very much for your interest in
this area. I can't adequately answer your question in this venue, but I
will work with your staff to provide you a more comprehensive response
via classified channels.
Mr. Turner. Is there potential for the USN to leverage the USAF
LRSO program for SLCM-N?
Admiral Wolfe. Yes, there is certainly potential for the USN to
leverage the USAF LRSO program for SLCM-N. The USAF LRSO and its
associated warhead are part of the SLCM-N Analysis of Alternatives
(AoA). The USN's TRIDENT II Life Extension 2 (D5LE2) and the USAF's
Ground Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD) programs have forged a strong
relationship and we share information between the programs (technical
exchanges, hardware, testing, etc) regularly.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MR. MOULTON
Mr. Moulton. On the importance of recruiting, developing, and
retaining a highly technical workforce, how do you measure your
progress in recruiting and retention? We are losing too much talent
today. Can you please share some of the statistics and the ways you
track this so we can see measurable progress?
General Dawkins. The Air Force carefully monitors recruiting goals
and retention metrics to ensure we have a sufficient force of highly
skilled and experienced Airmen to support the National Defense
Strategy. Additionally, some of the additional authorities granted to
my position as one of the six cross-functional authorities in the Air
Force enable me to gain additional insight into all career fields
supporting the Air Force nuclear enterprise and the ability to provide
feedback into the overall Air Force process. Furthermore, the Air Force
is developing a continuous assessment capability of the nuclear
enterprise as part of the Nuclear Mission Assessment (NMA), which was
established by the Fiscal Year 2016 National Defense Authorization Act.
The overall vision of the NMA is a continuous, comprehensive, data-
driven assessment capability to provide insights and trend analysis of
underlying issues within the nuclear enterprise to senior leaders and
decision makers. The analysis model being developed with our
partnership with Johns Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory
will incorporate human capital metrics such as retention rates to
better address the health of those career fields within the nuclear
enterprise. The Air Force as a whole achieved its FY20 recruiting goals
of 26,398 regular component Enlisted (100% of goal) and regular
Officers of 4,553 (100% of goal). We also met our Air National Guard
combined officer and enlisted goal by recruiting 11,620 members (108%
of goal), and our Reserve combined officer and enlisted goal of 7,000
(100% of goal). Additionally, the Air Force is on target to reach our
FY21 recruiting goals. While we are doing well in recruiting, we
understand there is a growing competition for talent and expect the
recruiting environment to become more challenging. As important as
recruiting is, retention within our high-tech force is equally
important. While the Air Force is experiencing unprecedented high
retention rates in both the enlisted and officer corps, the aggregate
success may hide areas with retention challenges. To help improve these
retention challenges, the Air Force continues to offer targeted
monetary incentives as well as non-monetary incentives focused on
quality of life and quality of service programs.
Mr. Moulton. On the importance of recruiting, developing, and
retaining a highly technical workforce, how do you measure your
progress in recruiting and retention? We are losing too much talent
today. Can you please share some of the statistics and the ways you
track this so we can see measurable progress?
Admiral Wolfe. [No answer was available at the time of printing.]
______
QUESTION SUBMITTED BY MS. STEFANIK
Ms. Stefanik. The FY2022 President's Budget requests $640,684,000
for Naval Reactors Development (NRD), which focuses on research and
development to ensure the current and future fleet is the most
advanced, well-maintained, and capable nuclear fleet in the world.
Which technologies are NRD working on to maintain our nuclear force's
capability overmatch over our great power adversaries in China and
Russia?
Dr. Verdon. Naval Reactors Development (NRD) funds the development
of advances in the unique nuclear propulsion technical capability that
the Navy relies on to operate, build, and maintain nuclear-powered
ships. Included in this line is funding that enables the Naval Nuclear
Propulsion Program to manage operations of the current fleet, perform
analysis of current reactor performance, and support construction of
nuclear-powered warships. The FY 2022 budget request also increases
investment in the research and development of new technologies,
including those intended to support the Navy timeline for SSN(X).
Investment in mid- to long-term advanced research and development has
been deferred over the past decade to support major recapitalization
efforts across the Program. The increase in NRD in FY 2022 will support
the following efforts:
Performing cutting-edge research to develop new
technologies and manufacturing methods that significantly improve the
capability, effectiveness, performance, and cost of future naval
nuclear propulsion plants to maintain our strategic maritime
superiority. Examples include added focus on:
Advanced instrumentation and control technology and
equipment: Current digital control and power management
equipment is becoming obsolete and will need to be replaced.
Naval Reactors is working with commercial industry on
replacements that take up less space, run cooler and with less
power, enable more effective use of electrical power in the
ship, are more secure against cyber-attack, costs less and can
efficiently acquire and process a broad range of plant data.
Plant Data and Automation: Advanced sensors,
artificial intelligence, and data analytics are being pursued
to automate current manual data collection, and process that
data into information that gives the operator a clearer picture
of plant status, with goals to simplify operation, enable
confident condition-based maintenance, increase ship
operational availability and ease the burden on our sailors.
Core manufacturing development: Naval Reactors has
started an effort to change how we manufacture reactor cores,
with technology that promises to provide a more capable reactor
for the next ship, while also allowing that reactor to be
smaller and cost less. The new approach employs advanced, high
precision robotics and machine learning methods for automated
in-process inspection that can quickly find and correct
potential production process issues much earlier than is
possible today, reducing our fabrication costs and risks.
Component manufacturing technologies: Naval Reactors
sees practical potential for using certain advanced
manufacturing approaches in building major plant components.
These advanced capabilities include hot-isostatic pressing and
metal additive manufacturing, and based on industry experience,
promise to delivery propulsion plant components at reduced cost
and schedule, in addition to enabling performance-enhancing
designs with unique or complex geometries. These advanced
manufacturing approaches can supplement, or in some cases
replace, traditional forging and casting methods, some of which
have changed little since World War II.
Developing technology for reactor plant components that
will provide substantial improvements in quieting capability and
performance for future submarines. There is real potential to make a
meaningful improvement to submarine stealth. Achieving an improvement
involves work in reactor technology areas using existing specialized
laboratory test facilities and state of the art flow and heat transfer
computer methods, as well as targeted improvements to key reactor plant
components.
Recapitalizing facilities and equipment for inspecting
and characterizing naval spent nuclear fuel; efforts that have the
potential to provide increased operating capability of nuclear
submarines and aircraft carriers.
______
QUESTIONS SUBMITTED BY MS. CHENEY
Ms. Cheney. The nominee for NNSA Administrator recently testified
in her confirmation hearing that it was longstanding U.S. policy that
any enriched uranium used for national security applications, such as
for NNSA's tritium program, must be fully ``unobligated''--that is,
mined, converted, and enriched in the United States, using U.S.
technologies. Do you agree with that position?
Dr. Verdon. Yes. Under longstanding U.S. policy and international
agreements, peaceful use obligations are imparted on uranium processed
by certain foreign technologies or transferred under a 123 Agreement.
DOE/NNSA maintains that these peaceful use obligations restrict the
material from being used for tritium production and therefore
unobligated material must be used for this mission.
Ms. Cheney. While not a national security mission, the Office of
Nuclear Energy is under a congressional mandate from Section 2001 of
the Energy Act of 2020 to be able to provide a new type of nuclear
fuel--high assay, low enriched uranium (HALEU)--to the commercial
advanced reactor industry no later than 2026. Currently the only
commercial producer of this specialty material is Russia. Shouldn't
NNSA be working to support the Office of Nuclear Energy in meeting
their commercial HALEU needs, so as to use American-produced HALEU
rather than material imported from a strategic adversary?
Dr. Verdon. Yes. DOE/NNSA's Office of Defense Nuclear
Nonproliferation is working closely with the Office of Nuclear Energy
to identify HALEU within the DOE complex that can be used to support
near-term commercial advanced reactor industry needs. Some of these
inventories will require processing into a form that can meet
industry's needs. While there is not enough HALEU available within the
DOE/NNSA complex to meet all of industry's anticipated near-term needs,
NNSA is committed to making available as much HALEU as possible for
advanced reactors without negatively impacting existing national
security and nonproliferation programs.
Ms. Cheney. Why did NNSA not include funding for the uranium
reserve in its FY22 request?
Dr. Verdon. NNSA did not request funding in FY 2022 for two
reasons. First, the Uranium Reserve program was originally proposed as
a program to support civilian nuclear industry and not defense needs.
DOE/NNSA has sufficient quantities of unobligated uranium to sustain
defense missions through the early 2040s. Second, funds appropriated in
FY 2021 will be executed in FY 2022.
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