Kelly calls SLCM-N program ‘disruptive,’ STRATCOM commander disagrees

March 28, 2025
By Sarah Salem

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) Wednesday told the commander of the Strategic Command Gen. Anthony Cotton that he thinks adding a nuclear warhead to the nation’s submarines could be “disruptive” to the maritime program.

A planned nuclear-armed, sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) would be deployed on the Virginia-class submarines and would include a variant of the W80-4 air-launched cruise missile warhead. The W80-4 is something that the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) is already working on.

“One of my concerns here is one of the things that makes us stand out is our submarine force, especially the attack submarines are incredibly effective,” Kelly said. Kelly’s remarks came at a hearing with the Senate Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces on the budget for fiscal 2026 and the future of the defense program. The hearing featured Cotton as a witness.

“To integrate a tactical nuclear missile into a Virginia-class sub would take modifications that are significant,” Kelly said. “You’d have to put the security system that we have in effect for nuclear weapons” The problem, Kelly said is that “I think it would be somewhat disruptive. I think that needs to be a consideration before we go down the road of significant modifications to these systems.”

Cotton responded, “I don’t know that it would be disruptive” and applauded U.S. “allies’ and partners’ ability of letting us have dual-use nuclear-capable things arrive on their shores.”

“I think there’s work to be done but I think it could be accomplished,” Cotton said.

Meanwhile, other Senators on the subcommittee were also in favor of SLCM-N, including Chair Deb Fischer (R-Neb.), whose state includes the silos for nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, currently for Boeing-made Minuteman III and intended for Sentinel missiles that are supposed to replace Minuteman III.

“This committee on a bipartisan basis strongly supports SLCM,” Fischer said earlier in the hearing. Fischer said in her opening statement that she thought the nation was “woefully underprepared” in terms of its strategic capabilities, but when she asked Cotton if he thought SLCM-N would address the “capability gap,” Cotton said it would. 

The fiscal 2024 National Defense Authorization Act directed the Navy and the NNSA to develop and deploy SLCM-N by 2034. When Sen. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) asked Cotton if he still believes “we should have SLCM-N by no later than 2034,” Cotton responded, “I would love to move that to the left [even earlier], Senator.”

The W80-4 warhead, while facing some delays in 2022, is currently “on schedule,” a senior official at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory told the Exchange Monitor in December. Even so, this past summer then-NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the agency was also looking at other possible warhead fits if delays persist.