Prospective Joint Chiefs Chairman Supports Sub-Launched Low-Yield Nuke

WASHINGTON — The president’s nominee for chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said that he supports development and deployment of a low-yield nuclear warhead as part of the nations’ strategic deterrent.

“I think it is an important capability to have in our arsenal in order to deal with any potential adversaries or contingency operations,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said as he testified June 11 on Capitol Hill at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The deployment of a low-yield warhead, the W76-2, is called for in the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review. Production of the warhead has begun for the Trident D5LE submarine-launched ballistic missiles to be deployed on board Ohio-class ballistic-missile submarines.

“I think [the sub-launched low-yield nuclear warhead] is an important capability to have in our arsenal in order to deal with any potential adversaries or contingency operations.”
Army Gen. Mark Milley, JCC nominee

The future of the W76-2 is clouded because of opposition of key Democratic members of the House of Representatives and is one of the contentious issues of the National Defense Authorization bill currently in work.

Milley listed the nation’s strategic nuclear deterrent as his top modernization priority, the others being space capabilities, artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons.

He supports modernization of all three legs of the U.S. strategic deterrent triad: bombers, ground-based intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. “The triad has worked,” Milley said. “There are many reasons why there hasn’t been a great power war since 1945. Clearly one of them is nuclear deterrence and part of that is the capability of the triad. Each leg of the triad gives you different capability.”