By Emelie Rutherford
A top Navy official stood by the service’s decision to outfit the next-generation ballistic-missile submarine with 16 missile tubes, amid reports that US. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) advocated for 20 tubes.
Senate Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee Ranking Member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) questioned Navy Strategic Systems Programs (SSP) Director Rear Adm. Terry Benedict last week about news accounts that the sea service and STRATCOM clashed on the missile-carrying capability of the future SSBN(X) submarine.
Benedict testified at a budget hearing that SSP provided the technical input that led to the decision to have 16 instead of 20 tubes for Trident D-5 ballistic missiles on the SSBN(X). Congress is keeping a close eye on the nascent program, which is slated to reach initial development in 2019, as senior Pentagon officials have warned could overwhelm the Navy’s shipbuilding budget.
Benedict said SSP supported analyses of the Navy, STRATCOM, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense leading up the SSBN(X) program’s recent entry into the Milestone A phase. The Pentagon’s Defense Acquisition Board permitted SSBN(X) to enter into this technology development phase on Jan. 10.
In addition to SSP’s technical input regarding the SSBN(X) missile tubes, Benedict said, “other factors were considered” when determining the number of tubes, and “cost was one of them.”
Still, he said he shares a viewpoint with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Gary Roughead, and STRATCOM Commander Air Force Gen. Robert Kehler: “Given the threats that we see today, given the mission that we see today, given the upload capability of the D-5, and given the environment as they saw today, all three of those leaders were comfortable with the decision to proceed forward with 16 tubes,” Benedict said.
SSP, he said, examined “the capability of the (D-5) missile itself” and its range.
“Based on what we understand, the capability of the D-5, today,…as the director of SSP, I am comfortable with that decision.”
Meanwhile on Capitol Hill, House Republicans and Senate Democrats continued to spar yesterday over the size of the federal budget for fiscal year 2011, which began last Oct. 1. Temporary government funding–within a continuing resolution (CR) with mainly FY ’10 funding levels–is set to expire tomorrow at midnight.
The House Rules Committee was slated to meet last night, after press time, to set the parameters of House floor debate for a new one-week CR that includes a complete FY ’11 defense appropriations bill. However, President Barack Obama and some congressional Democrats have balked at that proposal. The White House has insisted lawmakers agree to a full FY ’11 budget for all of the agencies, not just the Pentagon.