Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) released a joint statement today following the release of President Obama’s Nuclear Posture Review:
The Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) is a lengthy and complex document that we look forward to reviewing and discussing it with appropriate Administration officials to understand precisely what its meaning is.
However, upon first review, we do have concerns.
First, we are concerned about how the NPR will affect the nuclear modernization program that is required by law at the time the START follow-on agreement is submitted to the Senate. This plan must bring our nuclear weapons complex, our warheads, and our nuclear weapons delivery systems up to 21st century standards.
The NPR appears to make it more difficult to use the ‘spectrum of options’ (i.e., refurbishment, reuse, and replacement) recommended by the Perry-Schlesinger Commission to enhance the reliability of the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile. We expect the Administration will not take any option off the table to ensure the military and the directors of the national laboratories are able to maintain the safety, security and reliability of the current stockpile. We will evaluate this carefully in the coming weeks, including when we see the modernization plan required by law at the time the START follow-on treaty is submitted to the Senate.
Moreover, the amount of money committed to this in the FY11-15 budget window – the $5 billion budget transfer referenced by Defense Secretary Gates, spread over five years – is woefully inadequate to bring our Manhattan Project-era facilities up to date and do the work necessary to enhance the reliability and extend the life of our warheads, all while maintaining the current stockpile. This funding insufficiency must be corrected.
Second, the U.S. has had a longstanding policy, embraced by administrations of both parties, of retaining all options to respond to an attack on it or its allies by any state using weapons of mass destruction. In fact, one reason that we got rid of chemical and biological weapons is that we were told that we would always have the nuclear deterrent available. Unfortunately, the NPR released today confuses this longstanding policy. The Obama Administration must clarify that we will take no option off the table to deter attacks against the American people and our allies.
Third, the NPR states ‘today’s most immediate and extreme danger is nuclear terrorism…today’s other pressing threat is nuclear proliferation.’
We believe that preventing nuclear terrorism and nuclear proliferation should begin by directly confronting the two leading proliferators and supporters of terrorism, Iran and North Korea. The Obama Administration’s policies, thus far, have failed to do that and this failure has sent exactly the wrong message to other would be proliferators and supporters of terrorism.
