Adm. Charles Richard, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, was beating the drum again for modernizing U.S. weapons to defend against Russia and China, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday. He said that China is modernizing its nuclear forces so fast that he’s ordered intelligence assessments not to include any information older than one month. He said he had seen indications China had moved at least some of its nuclear forces from a peacetime status to a so-called “launch-on-warning” and “high-alert” posture. However, Russia remains Richard’s first concern. He complained about the U.S. not modernizing. “While we are at 0% [modernization], it is easier to describe what they’re [Russia] not modernizing — nothing,” he said. “What they are [upgrading] is pretty much everything, including several never-before-seen capabilities.”
Richard also wants his new ICBMs. He warned against efforts to curtail or cancel the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, the new missile that’s intended to replace the Minuteman III ICBMs. “The basic design criteria of the triad is that you cannot allow a failure of any one leg of the triad to prevent everything the president has ordered you to do,” he said."What is not often recognized is that we do not have a triad from day to day. ... Day to day, what you have is basically a dyad.” This is because there are no bombers on constant alert as was the case during the Cold War. “If you don’t have intercontinental ballistic missiles ... you are completely dependent on the submarine leg,” he said. “I’ve already told the secretary of defense that under those conditions, I would request to re-alert the bombers.”
