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WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Kevin Cramer (R-ND), ahead of a Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) hearing, met with Air Force General Anthony Cotton, U.S. Strategic Command, regarding the nuclear triad, radar modernization, and opportunities at Grand Forks and Minot Air Force Bases.
At SASC, Senator Cramer discussed maintaining B-52-capable runways and bolstering deterrence programs to protect our nation against near-peer threats. Excerpts and full video are below.
Senator Cramer highlighted the only two remaining bases with runways capable of accommodating B-52 bombers between Michigan and Montana are in Minot and Grand Forks.
“When it comes to the Bomber Agile Combat Employment base we've talked about a few times, how useful would more runway space be for the disbursement of those B-52s and maybe other large aircraft, especially while we still have some of them intact that could be prepared quickly?” asked Senator Cramer.
“To your point, you're absolutely right. We used to have numerous airfields throughout the U.S. that could act as dispersal sites for a lot of our strategic forces and weapons -- not permanent locations, but places where you can disperse. Over the decades, that has eroded. Many communities will look and see, and say, ‘I don't understand why I have an 11,000-foot runway at my regional airport,’ and then it’s no longer an 11,000-foot runway. We're looking into it. I'm actually having the Commander of Air Force Global Strike take a look at dispersal locations, because now, once again, as we've been discussing, we have two near-peers… first time in the history of what STRATCOM has had to deal with,” responded General Cotton.
As Ranking Member of the SASC Seapower Subcommittee, Senator Cramer asked General Cotton about scaling threat deterrence programs in the context of U.S. adversaries like China and Russia.
“China's capabilities are growing at an unprecedented pace as you have already referenced, and Russia becomes more unpredictable and dangerous all of the time. Some of the programs that we’re relying on to maintain that deterrence were created with different threats in mind, obviously, or at least different scales of those threats. Do you think, are twelve Columbia Class submarines enough?” asked Senator Cramer.
“It goes back to the original statement I made in regards to, I think we have to have a conversation and look at force posture. Force posture is all three legs of the triad to ensure that we have what we need moving forward into the into the thirties, forties, fifties,” responded General Cotton.
Lastly, Senator Cramer asked General Cotton and Commander General James Dickinson, U.S. Space Command, whether properly funding national security is a “like-to-have” or “must-have.” Both generals responded, “It is a must-have.”