Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / BREAKING - Senator and Astronaut Mark Kelly says Trumps golden dome could push enemies to nukes
Transcript
- 0:01Hey everybody, welcome back to the Elon Musk Podcast.
- 0:05This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads, the
- 0:08Shape, SpaceX, Tesla X, The Boring Company, and Neuralink.
- 0:13I'm your host, Will. Walden.
- 0:15He's Senator Cotton. Senator Kelly, you are.
- 0:17Recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, General
- 0:21Cotton, General Whiting, thank you for being here.
- 0:24Want to first touch on Golden Dome and then I want to save
- 0:27some time for Slick Em and agree nuclear deterrence keep keeps us
- 0:35safe. And General Cotton, you
- 0:38mentioned 2 nuclear peers. One of my biggest concerns is
- 0:44the third one, which is the DPRK.
- 0:49And I think it's fair to say that most of the time we with
- 0:55our nuclear peers, we're dealing with rational actors.
- 1:00We hope that's the case. That's the thing, that part of
- 1:05nuclear deterrence that they will act rationally.
- 1:08Not so sure that's the case with the DPRK and they are building
- 1:13more nuclear weapons. They're working on other systems
- 1:18to deliver them and they can now range into the United States.
- 1:23I believe that's our view as a nation.
- 1:26So can you talk a little bit about Golden Dome?
- 1:31And my concern with this is it could potentially, even though I
- 1:36am not against the idea of a system that can protect the
- 1:40entire United States from incoming ballistic missiles
- 1:46nuclear armed at the same time this could accelerate a growing
- 1:53number. Our adversaries response to
- 1:56having a missile defense system could be to build more nuclear
- 1:59weapons. And if one or two get through
- 2:04that is too many. Right now.
- 2:06We do have a defensive system to protect us from a rogue actor in
- 2:13launching one ICBM. And my understanding is, and if
- 2:16you could share a little bit General Cotton about how
- 2:19effective that system is with the interceptors we have in
- 2:21Alaska and in California. So could you provide an estimate
- 2:28of how much this would cost and what enhanced capability we
- 2:33would get out of this? And do you feel we could build a
- 2:36system that is not penetrable? Well, thank you, Senator Kelly.
- 2:44I don't want to get out of my lane because Northcom General
- 2:47Guillo is the one that's undertaking that role.
- 2:49My responsibility from Golden Dome is twofold in accordance to
- 2:53the EO and mine is to make sure that I can assure that a second
- 2:58strike capability for the United States remains.
- 3:01And how do we ensure that as far as the reliability of of the the
- 3:09ground based interceptors piece once again that I, I don't own
- 3:12that platform, that platform belongs to North Common.
- 3:15That's probably best for for General Guillo to answer that.
- 3:18I do believe and we heard my colleague talk about the, the,
- 3:21the layered approach that is kind of the essence of Golden
- 3:25Dome for America. I think that's that's the answer
- 3:28and the key on, on on how that system can be deliverable moving
- 3:33forward. All right, and thank you.
- 3:37Thank you, General. I, I do agree, I think it's
- 3:40something we need to look into and we need to do look at a cost
- 3:44benefit analysis of this and also consider how it would
- 3:50potentially change the nuclear deterrence posture of not only
- 3:55us, but China and Russia on, on Slickham.
- 3:59And I know it was brought up here also general if if one of
- 4:05my concerns here is one of the things that makes makes us stand
- 4:09out is our submarine force, especially the attack submarines
- 4:13are incredibly effective. To integrate a tactical nuclear
- 4:20missile into a Virginia class sub would take modifications
- 4:29that are significant. And you have to put the security
- 4:32system that we have in effect for nuclear weapons.
- 4:35And my problem I think that I have with this is in the Western
- 4:44Pacific, this is a capability. Our attack submarine force is
- 4:51incredibly capable and I think this would be somewhat
- 4:54disruptive. I think that needs to be a
- 4:56consideration before we go down the road of significant
- 5:01modifications to these systems. If you could just comment
- 5:04briefly on that. Well Senator, I think from my
- 5:07perspective a lot of those are TTPS that the Department of Navy
- 5:11had and I think they need to pull those out of the out of the
- 5:16cupboard and and look to see what those TTPS were when we had
- 5:19T lamb ends. I don't know if it would be
- 5:23disruptive especially now that what we're seeing especially in
- 5:25the Indo Paycom theatre in regards to our allies and
- 5:29partners ability of letting us have a dual use nuclear capable
- 5:34things arrive on their shores. The fact that, you know, I can
- 5:39now have B52's fly into Japan where I I didn't before and,
- 5:45and, and on the on the Korean Peninsula, I think there's,
- 5:48there's work to be done, but I think it can be accomplished.
- 5:51Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair.
- 5:54Thanks for listening to the Elon Musk Podcast today.
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