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Angus King Sounds Alarms On Staffing Reductions Hindering United States’ Nuclear Triad Development
Forbes Breaking News
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5/30/2025
At a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Sen. Angus King (I-ME) spoke about the United States’ nuclear power development.
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00:00
Senator King, you are recognized for any remarks. Thank you, Madam Chair. I think
00:06
it's important to emphasize at the beginning of this hearing why nuclear
00:11
weapons. Why is it that we have this focus on your production of nuclear
00:17
weapons and also on our strategic delivery platforms? It's because of
00:22
deterrence. The whole idea of nuclear weapons is to never have to use them,
00:27
and they will never have to be used as long as our adversaries are convinced
00:34
that if they use nuclear weapons first they will pay a terrible and unacceptable
00:38
price. So I think it's important that we remember the fundamental purpose of this
00:44
whole enterprise, which is to make this country safer and to avoid the use of
00:51
these unthinkable weapons. Every year or every probably every 12 months or so
00:57
I speak at the launch of a new destroyer at Bath Iron Works in Maine, and my
01:02
remarks always have a similar theme, which is we're building these ships in the
01:06
hopes that they will never have to be used in conflict, because having them
01:10
there, having the capability that you're responsible for developing, is what keeps
01:15
this country safe and avoids the unthinkable, which is a nuclear
01:20
confrontation. I am concerned, and I'm sure we'll examine these questions during the
01:26
course of the hearing with issues of staffing, whether it's at Hanford or at
01:32
the National Labs or in NSA generally, because we can't solve these problems. We
01:40
can't meet the demands that are being placed upon you without the people, and I'm
01:45
worried that we've lost in the past few months some pretty important people, some
01:50
very capable people, and I want to be sure that the expertise that those
01:54
people carried with them is being transferred to new staff coming on, and that we're
02:02
adequately staffing various departments and bureaus in order to be sure that we
02:09
can meet the demands. We're now well into the modernization of the nuclear triad with
02:15
missiles, with the bomber, with the new Columbia-class submarine, but they have to
02:22
have the weapons in order to make them the effective deterrent, and that's where
02:25
NSA comes in. So I'm looking forward to the hearing, and I hope you will address
02:30
issues of staffing and adequacy of staffing, because I am concerned that that
02:35
could hobble our ability to meet the very high level of demand that we have in the
02:41
nuclear modernization project. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
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