Nuclear modernization may be scaled back.

• Author: Harper, Jon
• Position: Budget Matters

* The Pentagon has ambitious nuclear modernization plans, but President Barack Obama could downsize them in the final months of his administration.

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In order to push the New START arms control treaty with Russia through Congress in 2010, the commander in chief promised to modernize the nation's nuclear arsenal in conjunction with efforts to shrink the total size of the force.

The Pentagon has estimated that procuring new intercontinental ballistic missiles, long-range bombers, ballistic missile submarines and other nuclear assets will cost $350 billion to $450 billion over the next 20 years. The Air Force recently solicited requests for proposals from industry for the new ground-based strategic deterrent and the long-range standoff weapon cruise missile.

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"It is a simple fact that the modernization plan was put together in a different budget environment," Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes, one of Obama's closest aides, said at a recent conference hosted by the Arms Control Association.

"The modernization budget will force difficult trade-offs in the coming decades," he added. "The president will continue to review these plans as he considers how he wants to hand the baton off to his successor."

Rhodes acknowledged that major nuclear spending would still be needed.

"There's going to have to be a significant investment in that," he said. "The question presented is simply whether or not the scale of the plan fits into the long-term budgetary picture, [and] what trade-offs would that force on future administrations, including on important conventional capabilities?"

Rhodes' comments raised alarm bells among Republicans on Capitol Hill, prompting Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, to write a pointed letter to Obama.

"We write to share our concern with efforts that may be underway in the closing days of your administration to abandon...