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November 30, 2011 – Today, Nebraska’s Senator Ben Nelson, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, delivered a speech on the Senate floor about the impact of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act on strategic forces issues, including U.S. Strategic Command in Nebraska, missile defense and America’s cyber defenses. Sen. Nelson’s speech follows:
Mr. President, I want to begin my comments on this year’s National Defense Authorization Act by thanking all the members of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
And I would especially like to thank the Subcommittee’s ranking member Senator Sessions for the close working relationship we share. It is always a pleasure to work with my friend from Alabama. The annual National Defense Authorization Act is one of the most important pieces of legislation Congress passes every year and this year marks what I hope will be the passing of a defense authorization act for the 50th year in a row.
Overview
Mr. President – I would like to give my colleagues a brief overview of the provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act we are considering today as they relate to the Strategic Forces Subcommittee.
The jurisdiction of the subcommittee includes missile defense, strategic forces, space programs, intelligence programs, cyber security, the defense funded portions of the Department of Energy and the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board.
In preparing the provisions in the bill that relate to the areas of our jurisdiction, the subcommittee held six hearings on defense programs at the Department of Energy, strategic nuclear forces, missile defense, and space programs at the Department of Defense, and implementation of the New START Treaty.
The subcommittee’s provisions were adopted in a bipartisan manner. And I again want to thank Senator Sessions, our ranking member, and his staff and the professional staff on the Armed Services committee for the close work we have enjoyed with them working on the hearings and preparing this bill.
Our committee oversees the nuclear strategic forces and as many know U.S. Strategic Command –in my home state of Nebraska—is charged with our nation’s nuclear deterrence.
U.S. Strategic Command
It is important to note that this bill strengthens and improves our nation’s nuclear command and control and all of the missions that fall under USSTRATCOM by providing the full authorization for a new command and control complex.
A reliable and assured command, control, and communication from the President to the nuclear forces is fundamental to our strategic deterrent and the new Command and Control Complex at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska will provide this mission surety.
Missile Defense
In the area of missile defense, we have funded the program at $10.1 billion, including the full $1.2 billion requested for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense system. We have also included a provision that would set forth the sense of the Congress that it is essential for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense “System to achieve the levels of reliability, availability, sustainability, and operational performance necessary to ensure that the United States remains protected.
The bill also supports the development and deployment of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA) to missile defense. This is the U.S. missile defense program to defend our military forces and NATO allies in Europe from Iranian missile threats.
The Defense Department has nearly completed Phase 1 of the EPAA, with an Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) ship now patrolling the Mediterranean, and a missile defense radar now located in Turkey.
The United States also successfully negotiated the agreements with Poland and Romania to deploy land-based Aegis BMD systems in their countries in future phases of the EPAA.
The committee also made a few funding adjustments in the new bill to reflect fact of life changes since the Armed Services Committee’s markup of its earlier bill, S.1253. For example, the recent flight test failure of the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system with the Standard Missile-3 Block IB interceptor means that the program will have a substantial delay before it can begin procurement.
The program will also need additional Research and Development funds to fix the flight test problems. So the bill adjusts the funding to permit such fixes.
In addition, the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system has experienced slower production than expected, and will not be able to use all the funds planned and requested in the budget. Consequently, the bill adjusts the funding accordingly.
Cyber Defenses and Space
In mid-2009, Secretary Gates directed U.S. Strategic Command to stand up U.S. Cyber Command as a sub-unified command. The Command reached Full Operational Capability a year ago.
Since that time, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff characterized cyber warfare as one of two “existential threats” to America, and a former Director of National Intelligence publicly proclaimed his belief that adversaries could take down the nation’s power grid or devastate the country’s financial system. Very damaging intrusions into government, military, and industrial networks are an almost daily occurrence, resulting in the loss of precious and expensive advanced technology – the technology that fuels economic growth and sustains our security.
Over the last two years, the Strategic Forces Subcommittee has supported legislation to accelerate the arduous process of developing policies and doctrine to guide our responses to cyber attacks and to govern the use of cyber weapons by our own military forces.
The Subcommittee has also sponsored legislation to begin to close the gap in cyber defenses by developing new technological approaches in partnership with America’s cutting-edge information technology sector.
Moving on to Space programs, the bill would provide the Air Force the authority to purchase in a block buy, using a fixed price contract, the next two Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites-- an important part of the nuclear command and control system. This will result in a 20% savings.
Budget
We have authorized the President’s level of funding for the nuclear modernization programs at the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration but we are fully aware that the Budget Control Act that was passed last summer has reduced the levels that can be appropriated by some $400 million.
I would note that even with this reduction it is still a 5 percent increase over last year’s levels. I will be working with my colleagues to carefully evaluate the President’s request for fiscal year 2013 in light of the commitments both the Congress and the administration made under the New START treaty for nuclear modernization. This Congress made commitments for modernization and moving forward we must honor those commitments. Most importantly we need to continue to ensure that our stockpile is safe, reliable and works as intended by the military so that we maintain our strategic deterrent well into the 21st century.
We understand the budget climate that we are in and it is likely that realistic adjustments must be made as a result of the mandated reductions to defense spending in the Budget Control Act, but we will work with the Department of Defense and U.S. Strategic Command to ensure that pressing priorities are met and our strategic deterrents are not undercut.
Let me thank again Senator Sessions and our staff for the productive and bipartisan relationship we have had on this subcommittee and also all members on the subcommittee. I look forward to working with our colleagues to pass this important legislation.
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