Defense Secretary Ashton Carter has said the Defense Department will work to invest and sustain the U.S. nuclear deterrence enterprise that serves as the foundation of the country’s defense strategy, DoD News reported Monday.
Jim Garamone writes Carter told troops at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota Monday that the U.S. government has initiated steps to update its nuclear triad in response to nuclear arsenal modernization efforts of countries such as Russia and North Korea.
The nuclear triad includes bombers, ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles, Garamone reports.
“We’re now beginning the process of correcting decades of under-investment in nuclear deterrence,†Carter told his audience.
He noted that the budget request for fiscal year 2017 would allocate $19 billion in total funds for the nuclear enterprise, Garamone writes.
DoD also plans to spend $108 billion over the next five years on the recapitalization of its nuclear force and related command, control, communications and intelligence systems, Carter said.
Carter also cited Pentagon’s plans to build new platforms designed to replace its Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines and ICBMs.
