House strategic forces hearing highlights modernization milestones, cost and feasibility concerns over space-based interceptors

Members of the House Armed Services Committee's Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Oct. 11 heard updates from senior Department of Energy and Department of Defense officials on efforts to sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear deterrent, and pressed witnesses on the technical and fiscal risks of the administration's proposed space-based interceptor plan known in testimony as "Golden Dome."

The subcommittee convened to review policies and programs related to nuclear forces and atomic energy defense activities. Ranking Member Rep. Seth Moulton warned committee members that the administration's Golden Dome proposal had not been subjected to the policy and cost deliberations he considers necessary and called recent cost estimates "quite concerning." "Everything [the bipartisan Strategic Posture Commission] said was contingent on the capabilities being determined 'feasible,'" Moulton said, adding that feasibility as defined by the commission requires technical, financial and policy soundness.

The hearing focused on two linked themes: near‑term sustainment of legacy systems and long‑term recapitalization across the nuclear triad. Theresa Robbins, acting administrator of the National Nuclear Security Administration, told the panel that NNSA is executing a broad modernization program while continuing stockpile sustainment. Robbins cited concrete production milestones: the first war reserve plutonium pit for the W87-1 produced at Los Alamos in October;…