Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the
Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
I'm your host, Will. Walden.
He's Senator Cotton. Senator Kelly, you are.
Recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, General
Cotton, General Whiting, thank you for being here.
Want to first touch on Golden Dome and then I want to save
some time for Slick Em and agree nuclear deterrence keep keeps us
safe. And General Cotton, you
mentioned 2 nuclear peers. One of my biggest concerns is
the third one, which is the DPRK.
And I think it's fair to say that most of the time we with
our nuclear peers, we're dealing with rational actors.
We hope that's the case. That's the thing, that part of
nuclear deterrence that they will act rationally.
Not so sure that's the case with the DPRK and they are building
more nuclear weapons. They're working on other systems
to deliver them and they can now range into the United States.
I believe that's our view as a nation.
So can you talk a little bit about Golden Dome?
And my concern with this is it could potentially, even though I
am not against the idea of a system that can protect the
entire United States from incoming ballistic missiles
nuclear armed at the same time this could accelerate a growing
number. Our adversaries response to
having a missile defense system could be to build more nuclear
weapons. And if one or two get through
that is too many. Right now.
We do have a defensive system to protect us from a rogue actor in
launching one ICBM. And my understanding is, and if
you could share a little bit General Cotton about how
effective that system is with the interceptors we have in
Alaska and in California. So could you provide an estimate
of how much this would cost and what enhanced capability we
would get out of this? And do you feel we could build a
system that is not penetrable? Well, thank you, Senator Kelly.
I don't want to get out of my lane because Northcom General
Guillo is the one that's undertaking that role.
My responsibility from Golden Dome is twofold in accordance to
the EO and mine is to make sure that I can assure that a second
strike capability for the United States remains.
And how do we ensure that as far as the reliability of of the the
ground based interceptors piece once again that I, I don't own
that platform, that platform belongs to North Common.
That's probably best for for General Guillo to answer that.
I do believe and we heard my colleague talk about the, the,
the layered approach that is kind of the essence of Golden
Dome for America. I think that's that's the answer
and the key on, on on how that system can be deliverable moving
forward. All right, and thank you.
Thank you, General. I, I do agree, I think it's
something we need to look into and we need to do look at a cost
benefit analysis of this and also consider how it would
potentially change the nuclear deterrence posture of not only
us, but China and Russia on, on Slickham.
And I know it was brought up here also general if if one of
my concerns here is one of the things that makes makes us stand
out is our submarine force, especially the attack submarines
are incredibly effective. To integrate a tactical nuclear
missile into a Virginia class sub would take modifications
that are significant. And you have to put the security
system that we have in effect for nuclear weapons.
And my problem I think that I have with this is in the Western
Pacific, this is a capability. Our attack submarine force is
incredibly capable and I think this would be somewhat
disruptive. I think that needs to be a
consideration before we go down the road of significant
modifications to these systems. If you could just comment
briefly on that. Well Senator, I think from my
perspective a lot of those are TTPS that the Department of Navy
had and I think they need to pull those out of the out of the
cupboard and and look to see what those TTPS were when we had
T lamb ends. I don't know if it would be
disruptive especially now that what we're seeing especially in
the Indo Paycom theatre in regards to our allies and
partners ability of letting us have a dual use nuclear capable
things arrive on their shores. The fact that, you know, I can
now have B52's fly into Japan where I I didn't before and,
and, and on the on the Korean Peninsula, I think there's,
there's work to be done, but I think it can be accomplished.
Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
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