Washington, DC – House Armed Services Committee Chairman Adam Smith (D-WA) released the following statement about the Congressional Budget Office’s newest report indicating a $94 billion increase in the estimated cost of nuclear weapons complex upgrades:

“The current U.S. plans to replace and upgrade the nuclear weapons enterprise are unaffordable. The latest independent cost estimate for these upgrades is $94 billion higher than just two years ago, and we know the costs will continue to increase.

“In recent times, U.S. national defense policy planning has largely refused to grapple with the size and scope of the budgetary burden that these nuclear modernization plans will impose. We cannot continue to blindly follow that path without a strategic discussion that asks the big questions about the best way to deter nuclear war, reassure our allies, maintain a credible and reliable deterrent, and accomplish our national objectives while taking into account budgetary reality.

“We must make smart choices in order to put our deterrent on an affordable and sustainable path in the decades to come and to reduce the risk of nuclear war.”

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