Research Analyst Monica Montgomery was quoted in Forbes about the Biden administration’s decision to fund a new nuclear-armed Sea-Launched Cruise Missile, known as SLCM-N, in his fiscal year 2022 budget request.
“Putting nuclear-armed missiles back on the conventional surface or attack submarine fleets of the Navy is a real cause for concern,” says Monica Montgomery Research Analyst, Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, told Forbes. “Doing so would erode the higher-priority conventional missions of the Navy by reducing the number of conventional missiles each boat could carry and increase the possibility of conflict escalation through miscalculation by blurring the line between conventional and nuclear cruise missiles on these vessels.”
Montgomery calls the message sent by the SLCM-N develpment “both surprising and troubling,” seeing it as potentially destabilizing, and says the Trump-era proposal should not have gone ahead under the new administration.
“The SLCM-N was truly low-hanging fruit ripe for cancellation in this year’s budget,” says Montgomery. Read more
