U.S. Global Strike Commander on the State of Nuclear Deterrence

The B-2 and the B-1?both of those bombers were produced during the Cold War. So we were in the middle of this ideological conflict, and as they came off the production line they went off and did testing for nuclear weapons because that was the primary mission and role that we had for them. They slowly grew a conventional capability.

It was a very different world. Back then, nuclear deterrence pretty much was strategic deterrence; that?s not the case [anymore]. Strategic deterrence is economic deterrence, it?s cyber deterrence, it?s space. And there is a much smaller piece of nuclear deterrence. So the most probable use of a bomber in the future is really gonna be to influence decision-maker behavior to try to keep a confrontation from becoming a conflict, mostly by positioning the bombers, by demonstrating force, those kind of things.

But nuclear deterrence remains a mission set. After the airplane comes off the line and we have it conventionally certified with those weapons, then we?ll transition to the nuke certification. We have never certified an airplane and both weapon types at the same time because it?s very different testing and it would drive a whole lot of expense. Frankly, trying to do them simultaneously would slow those tests down. There is a lot of debate about, well, is it nuclear first or is it conventional first? It?s going to be both. It?s just, what?s the priority?

Source: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military/missile-defense/us-global-strike-commander-on-the-state-of-nuclear-deterrence-12370030?src=rss

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