OPINION — The Senate last week added $1.2 billion to the fiscal 2019 Defense Appropriations Bill to increase the Pentagon’s offensive and defensive hypersonic capabilities.
It was done as a direct response to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s March 1, speech in which he claimed Russia was working on hypersonic weapons and had already developed “a high-precision hypersonic aircraft missile system.”
Putin said the offensive missile system, called Kinzhal (Dagger), when launched from an aircraft travels at “hypersonic speed, 10 times faster than the speed of sound, can also maneuver at all phases of its flight trajectory, which also allows it to overcome all existing and, I think, prospective anti-aircraft and anti-missile defense systems, delivering nuclear and conventional warheads in a range of over 2,000 kilometers [1,423 miles].”
The Senate Appropriations Committee said the added funds were in response to a wish list from Missile Defense Agency Director Lt. Gen. Samuel Greaves, who in June said, “The hypersonic threat is real, it is not imagination.” The Appropriations Committee report on the bill said the Department of Defense is accelerating existing efforts in hypersonics to counter the progress made by near peer threats,” i.e. Russia.
The Senate panel noted, “that rapid technological progress has increased threat complexity, to include advanced capabilities being developed by rogue nations and emerging threats such as hypersonic glide vehicles.”
The committee listed nearly $1 billion of the added money to go for hypersonics research and prototyping efforts.
These include: acceleration of the prompt global strike capability development ($345 million); Air Force acceleration of prototyping the air-launched, rapid-response weapon and hypersonic conventional strike weapons ($300 million); Navy and DoD’s Strategic Capabilities Office designing, fabricating, and testing of an advanced rail gun mount and continuing development of associated hypervelocity projectile ($113 million); and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) for development of offensive hypersonic weapons ($50 million).
DARPA’s own Tactical Boost Glide, rocket-propelled hypersonic missile, similar to Putin’s claimed weapon, is being developed with the Air Force. Its prototype is expected to be available by 2023.
The committee’s report also carries a controversial provision related to the Trump administration’s plan to develop a small number of low-yield, nuclear warheads for the Trident II strategic, sub-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) to be used to deter Russia from using its own tactical battlefield nuclear weapons.
While the administration plans to use $65 million in the fiscal 2019 budget of the National Nuclear Security Agency to fund modifications to produce the Trident II’s planned W-76-2, low-yield, warhead, the Defense Department bill contains $22.6 million for the Navy to begin developing the sub-launched missile variant.
The Senate panel report calls for the Defense Department to withhold those Navy funds until the two departments report to the committee on their timeline for completing the modifications, as well as the projected date for loading and fielding the low-yield SLCM.
More difficult, the Senate panel also seeks “a description of actions that will be taken to mitigate risks of miscalculation associated with adversaries being unable to distinguish between a submarine-launched ballistic missile carrying a low-yield warhead and that of a missile carrying several, high-yield warheads.”
Last March 20, Strategic Command’s Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten told the Senate Armed Services Committee that the U.S. low-yield SLCM would only be used if the Russians first used their tactical nukes on the battlefield. At that point, he said, if the Russians did detect the SLCM launch aimed at a target in Russia, “they would see a single missile or maybe two missiles coming.” He said he assumed they would realize it was not a major attack.
Asked why he thought that would be the case, Hyten told the senators, “That is what I would recommend if I saw that coming against the United States.”
I doubt that will be the Defense Department’s written answer in any report it eventually provides to the Appropriations Committee. On the other hand, I also doubt the committee’s report language will keep the administration from moving forward with the new, low-yield SLCM, despite its questionable role as a useful deterrent.
