[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 99 (Thursday, June 13, 2019)]
[Senate]
[Pages S3495-S3496]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
SA 425. Mr. HOEVEN (for himself, Mr. Tester, Mr. Daines, and Mr.
Enzi) submitted an amendment intended to be proposed by him to the bill
S. 1790, to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2020 for military
activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and
for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe
military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other
purposes; which was ordered to lie on the table; as follows:
At the end of subtitle D of title XVI, add the following:
SEC. 1668. SENSE OF SENATE ON SUPPORT FOR A ROBUST AND MODERN
ICBM FORCE TO MAXIMIZE THE VALUE OF THE NUCLEAR
TRIAD OF THE UNITED STATES.
(a) Findings.--The Senate makes the following findings:
(1) Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (in this
section referred to as ``ICBMs'') have been a critical part
of the strategic deterrent of the United States for 6 decades
in conjunction with air and sea-based strategic delivery
systems.
(2) President John F. Kennedy referred to the deployment of
the first Minuteman missile during the Cuban Missile Crisis
as his ``ace in the hole''.
(3) The Minuteman III missile entered service in 1970 and
is still deployed in 2019, well beyond its originally
intended service life.
(4) The ICBM force of the United States peaked at more than
1,200 deployed missiles during the Cold War.
(5) The ICBM force of the United States currently consists
of approximately 400 Minuteman III missiles deployed across
450 operational missile silos, each carrying a single
warhead.
[[Page S3496]]
(6) The Russian Federation currently deploys at least 300
ICBMs with multiple warheads loaded on each missile and has
announced plans to replace its Soviet-era systems with
modernized ICBMs.
(7) The People's Republic of China currently deploys at
least 75 ICBMs and plans to grow its ICBM force through the
deployment of modernized, road-mobile ICBMs that carry
multiple warheads.
(8) The Russian Federation and the People's Republic of
China deploy nuclear weapons across a variety of platforms in
addition to their ICBM forces.
(9) Numerous countries possess or are seeking to develop
nuclear weapons capabilities that pose challenges to the
nuclear deterrence of the United States.
(10) The nuclear deterrent of the United States is
comprised of a triad of delivery systems for nuclear weapons,
including submarine-launched ballistic missiles (in this
subsection referred to as ``SLBMs''), air-delivered gravity
bombs and cruise missiles, and land-based ballistic missiles
that provide interlocking and mutually reinforcing attributes
that enhance strategic deterrence.
(11) Weakening one leg of the triad limits the deterrent
value of the other legs of the triad.
(12) In the nuclear deterrent of the United States, ICBMs
provide commanders with the most prompt response capability,
SLBMs provide stealth and survivability, and aircraft armed
with nuclear weapons provide flexibility.
(13) The ICBM force of the United States forces any would-
be attacker to confront more than 400 discrete targets, thus
creating an effectively insurmountable targeting problem for
a potential adversary.
(14) The size, dispersal, and global reach of the ICBM
force of the United States ensures that no adversary can
escalate a crisis beyond the ability of the United States to
respond.
(15) A potential attacker would be forced to expend far
more warheads to destroy the ICBMs of the United States than
the United States would lose in an attack, because of the
deployment of a single warhead on each ICBM of the United
States.
(16) The ICBM force provides a persistent deterrent
capability that reinforces strategic stability.
(17) ICBMs are the cheapest delivery system for nuclear
weapons for the United States to operate and maintain.
(18) United States Strategic Command has validated military
requirements for the unique capabilities of ICBMs.
(19) In a 2014 analysis of alternatives, the Air Force
concluded that replacing the Minuteman III missile would
provide upgraded capabilities at lower cost when compared
with extending the service life of the Minuteman III missile.
(20) The Minuteman III replacement program, known as the
ground-based strategic deterrent, is expected to provide a
land-based strategic deterrent capability for 5 decades after
the program enters service.
(b) Sense of the Senate.--It is the sense of the Senate
that--
(1) land-based ICBMs have certain characteristics,
including responsiveness, persistence, and dispersal, that
enhance strategic stability and magnify the deterrent value
of the air and sea-based legs of the nuclear triad of the
United States;
(2) ICBMs have played and continue to play a role in
deterring attacks on the United States and its allies;
(3) while arms control agreements have reduced the size of
the ICBM force of the United States, adversaries of the
United States continue to enhance, enlarge, and modernize
their ICBM forces;
(4) the modernization of the ICBM force of the United
States through the ground-based strategic deterrent program
should be supported;
(5) ICBMs have the lowest operation, maintenance, and
modernization costs of any part of the nuclear deterrent of
the United States; and
(6) unilaterally reducing the size of the ICBM force of the
United States or delaying the implementation of the ground-
based strategic deterrent program would degrade the deterrent
capabilities of a fully operational and modernized nuclear
triad and should not take place at the present time.
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