On the recordDecember 18, 2018
I want to finish up where Senator Kyl and I started off this morning and elaborate a little bit more about what responsibilities are concerning the nuclear modernization program. Defending America should be our No. 1 priority. In most all of the administrations throughout the years, it has been our No. 1 priority. Today we are talking about the need to modernize our nuclear forces. The reason I think this is important, there are a lot of people who say the nuclear forces are a relic of the past. This is not true. Some in Washington believe we don't need to modernize forces or that we can cut off one of the three legs--the three legs being the ICBM, bomber, and the submarine. It is not true. Our nuclear triad has to be kept intact. The arsenal is aging, and most of it has not been modernized since it started in the 1960s. In the 1980s, the last modernization actually took place during the Obama administration. They had a bet. They believed if we reduced our role in the number of nuclear weapons, the other countries would come along and do the same thing. That didn't work out. In fact, they have done just the opposite. As the Nuclear Posture Review said, very clearly, ``Since 2010 no potential adversary has reduced either the role of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy, or the number of nuclear weapons it fields.'' There is a comparison. The lighter color there is in development. In fact, Russia and China are both way ahead of us in that.…
