WASHINGTON — After two of the four congressional defense committees have debated their fiscal 2023 bills, two key U.S. Navy issues have surfaced as the most contentious: the Navy’s plan to decommission 24 ships in one year and its decision to cancel a sea-launched low-yield nuclear weapon.
On the nuclear weapons program, the Navy is arguing it does not want a new mission of hauling around nuclear weapons similar in size to those dropped on Japan in 1945, arguing its attack submarine and destroyer fleets are busy enough with their traditional mission sets. Some military leaders, though, say they should have another option at their disposal to deter Russia and China, who field low-yield tactical nuclear weapons.
The House Appropriations Committee agreed with the Pentagon proposal to cut research and development funding for the weapon, though the Senate Armed Services Committee put $25 million into its bill to continue the R&D effort.
At the same time, the SASC last week prohibited the Navy from decommissioning 12 of the 24 ships on the Navy’s chopping block: five of the nine littoral combat ships proposed for early retirement, as well as four dock landing ships, two expeditionary transfer docks, and one cruiser.
The HAC spared the five LCSs in its bill but did not address the other ships.
The House Armed Services Committee, which will mark up its defense bill Wednesday, has so far voted at the subcommittee level to save the four dock landing ships and one cruiser and will save debate on the other ships for the full committee.
Rep. Rob Wittman spoke to Defense News the day before the House Armed Services Committee will mark up its annual defense policy bill. Wittman, of Virginia, serves as the top Republican on the seapower and projection forces subcommittee and the second highest-ranking Republican on the full committee.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Congress and the Defense Department have been split on the fate of the Sea-Launched Cruise Missile-Nuclear. Where do you and your colleagues on HASC stand on the issue?
Many witnesses at committee hearings stated they believe the SLCM-N is necessary to fill a deterrence gap. There’s nothing between the largest-scale conventional weapon we have and a high-yield nuclear weapon. If your adversaries have that, then they could have the belief that, well, if we deploy a low-yield tactical weapon, that’s not going to provoke the United States because all they have to respond with is a weapon that would certainly put us into full-scale nuclear war.
So I think that you need that, if nothing else, as a deterrent to the Chinese. Their strategic and regional nuclear capabilities continue to grow. They do have a SLCM-N comparable weapon. Credible deterrence has to have a wide range of options. I think you can’t take SLCM-N off the table. I understand some people’s concerns about that, but I certainly think that the ability for us to deter far outweighs whatever concerns folks may have.
How does HASC plan to address the SLCM-N funding issue?
SLCM-N wasn’t in the chairman’s mark from Rep. Adam Smith, a Democrat from Washington, but there will be a push during the markup to restore funding for the program. Everybody from Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley on down has supported this. U.S. European Command, U.S. Strategic Command commanders. We’re going to be introducing an amendment tomorrow for funding. SASC provided funding last week during their markup; I think that what you’ll find is that HASC will mirror SASC in [its] markup for SLCM-N.
The seapower and projection forces subcommittee already voted to spare five ships from being decommissioned by the Navy, and the full committee is expected to debate barring the Navy…
Read More: Rep. Rob Wittman on US Navy ship retirements and a sea-launched nuclear weapon