Former USAF Chief of Staff: Move Away From Nuclear F-35
Barring investment from European allies, the Pentagon should abandon
the goal of a nuclear-capable F-35 Joint Strike Fighter in favor of
spending funds elsewhere, according to former US Air Force Chief of
Staff Norton Schwartz.
Schwartz, who headed up the Air Force from
2008 to 2012, argued instead that those funds should be put towards the
Air Force’s new long-range strike bomber (LRS-B).
“I recognize and
fully support the need for nuclear deterrence in America’s defense
architecture to include the triad and capabilities on which a number of
our alliances depend,” Schwartz said in a speech organized by the
Stimson Center, a DC-based think tank. But the Pentagon needs to ask if
“pursuing nuclear capability in the F-35 the best use of precious
investment dollars, as this is a multiple-hundred million dollar
decision, and more if one considers the optimization of the weapon for
the F-35.”
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