Daines pushes legislation to maintain full ICBM force
The House of Representatives approved an amendment Wednesday night to the defense appropriations bill for fiscal year 2015, which begins Oct. 1, that blocks the Pentagon from using any funding to decommission silos that currently house intercontinental ballistic missiles.
The amendment, introduced by Rep. Steve Daines, is similar to amendments on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2015, which require all 450 ICBM silos currently used for strategic defense to be retained in at least warm status beyond 2021.
“Because we don’t know what the future holds, it would be against our strategic and security interests to shut down or decommission nuclear silos. Further, rebuilding silos would be very expensive, so retaining our current launchers is the most cost-effective option for taxpayers,” Daines said.
In April, the Pentagon announced its plan to remove 50 ICBMs from their silos but keep those silos in warm status, meaning they can be armed with a nuclear missile at any time. Warm status requires regular maintenance, and communications systems between the silos are maintained.
The reduction is to meet limits on strategic nuclear weapons that were set in by New START, an arms reduction treaty between the U.S. and Russia that was ratified by the Senate in 2010 and entered into force Feb. 5, 2011.
Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Ind., spoke in opposition to Daines’ amendment to defense appropriations.
“The gentleman is saying that we should have 430 silos. The gentleman may be correct. Maybe we need 425 silos or maybe we need 218 silos. I don’t think we should prejudge that final figure until the authorization legislation is completed,” he said. “I certainly think, again, that it is limiting our options. I think any time we limit our defense options going forward that it is not good policy.”
The Pentagon has made no public moves to indicate plans to decommission any further ICBM silos.
The White House released a statement on items in the NDAA, strongly opposing some of its provisions, including the preservation of ICBM silos in warm status.
“This section would impinge on the president’s authority to determine the appropriate force structure to meet nuclear deterrence requirements, to determine the number of strategic delivery vehicles needed to meet national security requirements, and to implement changes in those forces,” according to the statement. “As the department currently plans to perform routine testing and maintenance on some silos, which would temporarily isolate them from the interconnected and redundant command and control system of the missile field during the overhaul, the provision as drafted could prevent the department from conducing this necessary testing and maintenance.”
The 50 silos without a missile count toward the limit of 800 total deployed and non-deployed missile launchers. The treaty allows 700 deployed launchers, of which the U.S. has a mix of ICBMs, nuclear submarines and bomber aircraft.
The Air Force told the Tribune on Thursday that the 50 empty silos would be spread evenly across the three ICBM bases in Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming.
The empty silos “will not remain static, but rather rotate as appropriate, in support of routine maintenance and operational considerations. After the Air Force applies selection criteria, the 50 missiles will be removed from launch facilities following the same procedures as routine maintenance,” according to Air Force officials.