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Do we need 'baby nukes' launched from subs? StratCom chief says yes

The chief of Offutt’s U.S. Strategic Command is happy with the record $813.4 billion Defense Department budget the Biden administration pitched to Congress a few weeks ago.

Except for the matter of a few “baby nukes.”

Adm. Charles Richard raised eyebrows earlier this month when he wrote a letter to top members of the House Armed Services Committee, calling out the Biden team for dropping a proposed low-yield, sea-launched nuclear cruise missile, first proposed during the Trump administration, from its 2023 budget plan.

“While I am satisfied USSTRATCOM priorities are adequately addressed, the current situation in Ukraine and China’s nuclear trajectory convinces me a deterrence and assurance gap exists,” Richard wrote in the April 4 letter to Reps. Adam Smith, D-Wash., and Mike Rogers, R-Ala., the chairman and ranking minority member of the committee.

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