Joe Biden urged to restore $10bn tactical nuclear missile programme

President Biden is facing growing pressure to reverse his decision to cancel a $10 billion programme to develop nuclear sea-launched cruise missiles.

The new deterrent weapon system, known as SLCM-N, had been fully supported by the military hierarchy at the Pentagon, but was officially scrapped last month as part of a nuclear posture review.

Despite backing from General Mark Milley, chairman of the US joint chiefs of staff, the nuclear cruise missile was assessed to be of “zero value” in terms of deterrence against Russia and China, and other potential threats.

However, US defence sources confirmed that since the decision, “hawks on the Hill” who disagreed with military cuts made by the Biden administration had pushed back to demand a rethink.

A former senior Pentagon official also pledged his support to reinstate the weapon programme. “I support congressional efforts to restore funding for the SLCM-N project,” Eric Edelman, under-secretary of defence for policy from 2005 to 2009, said.

In 2018 he co-chaired a bipartisan national defence strategy commission, mandated by Congress, which endorsed the SLCM-N programme. “I continue to believe it would make a useful contribution to deterrence,” he said.

The Pentagon backed it as a way of providing an additional low-yield nuclear response to the use of tactical nuclear weapons by a foreign power.

There have been fears recently that President Putin might resort to tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine after military setbacks including the withdrawal of Russian troops from the city of Kherson in the south. The US has warned Putin of “catastrophic consequences” if he uses nuclear weapons.

However, Lloyd Austin, the US defence secretary, said that a new deterrent weapon capability was not needed. Furthermore, the nuclear cruise missile would not have been ready for service until 2035.

The US Navy has a low-yield warhead, the W76-2, on some Ohio-class Trident ballistic-missile submarines to provide regional deterrence, and the US Air Force has upgraded its B61 nuclear gravity bombs, which are being placed in storage in Europe.

The US defence sources said that although Milley had supported the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile option, he had fully accepted the president’s decision to abandon it.

Scrapping SLCM-N would initially save nearly $200 million and an additional $2 billion over the next five years, the US Navy said.