WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), Chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, today questioned Admiral Christopher Grady – Nominee to be Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff – on the Pentagon’s efforts to modernize the United States’ nuclear infrastructure to better reflect the rapid evolution of next-generation technologies including cyberattacks, as well as the need to keep pace with developments in hypersonic weapons and directed energy technologies. After Senator King argued the nation’s nuclear triad – a combination of land, sea, and air weapons – could be “be rendered useless” without proper command and control modernization, Admiral Grady agreed with Senator King’s assessments and committed to act with urgency if confirmed.  

“We always talk about ‘The Triad’ – I think it’s a Quad. Without the modernization of nuclear command and control, and not only modernization, but ongoing modernization because the cyber-threat is constantly evolving. Without that modernization the rest of the triad could be rendered useless and therefore not credible, and therefore not a deterrent,” said Senator King. “I hope you will focus very intensely on the upgrades necessary to command and control systems. I think you’ve said that is your intention, but please reiterate it for me.”

“Yes Senator, absolutely,” concurred Admiral Grady. “What we seen in the cyber domain across all of our weapons systems has to be addressed. And so we talk a lot about being able to defend our networks; the ultimate network to defend is the NC3 Network, but we are going to have to be able to do that in cyber. So if confirmed, it would be a high priority of mine to continue the momentum started to do that.”

“…In briefings that I’ve been in, one of the reasons given for the speed with which the Chinese have achieved what they have in hypersonics is that they’re willing to fail, they’re willing to run tests and learn from failure, and we seem to be, as you say, risk averse, and therefore much slower in our development process,” added Senator King. “…One other area I hope you will emphasize is, that I think frankly we’ve been slow on is directed energy. We have a very expensive missile defense infrastructure that’s designed to hit a bullet with a bullet, and those bullets cost tens of millions of dollars. Do you believe that directed energy is a promising technology that should be pursued more aggressively?”

“I do Senator. As you correctly pointed out, that’s a terrible exchange ratio for us, and if we can get to the point where a drop of fuel means a bullet, that’s where we need to be,” responded Admiral Grady. “If confirmed, pursuit of directed energy and some of the other technologies that we’ve talked about now would be high on my list, but that directed energy then would be folded into an integrated network of capabilities that we can bring to the fight.”

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During the hearing, Senator King also stressed the need for the United States to counter Russian influence in the Arctic, and how this could be countered by joining the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

“I just returned this morning from the Norwegian Embassy from a conference on the Arctic, and one of the topics that came up was the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. There’s a famous picture of the Russians planting a Russian flag in the North Pole under the Arctic Ocean – and to me, it represents our failure to be at the table when we’re resolving disputes with regard to the maritime domain,” said Senator King, Co-Chair of the Senate Arctic Caucus. “Is it your professional military opinion that is it in the national interest of this country to accede to the Law of the Sea Treaty?”

“It is, Senator,” Admiral Grady agreed.

“I think it’s very important and something that we should bring up before this body once again because our national security is being compromised, whether it’s the South China Sea or the Arctic or other areas in the maritime area,” concluded Senator King.

As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and co-chair of the Cyberspace Solarium Commission, Senator King is recognized as one of Congress’s leading experts on cyberdefense and a strong advocate for a forward-thinking cyberstrategy that emphasizes layered cyberdeterrence. He has been one of Congress’ leading advocates for increased testing within America’s cyberspace operations – he routinely pushes top regulators to “be brutal in testing” critical infrastructure to identify any vulnerabilities for potential cyberattacks.

As Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee Subcommittee on Strategic Forces – which oversees the United States’ nuclear posture worldwide – Senator King has expressed concern about the emerging threats of Russia and China’s development of “nightmare weapon” hypersonic missiles. Following reports of a potential Chinese hypersonic missile test, Senator King stated that the “U.S. cannot lag in this development or allow for blind spots as we monitor the progress of our competitors.”