The White House has said it wants to take nuclear weapons off a “hair trigger” status, but that’s not a meaningful analogy, US Strategic Command chief Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton told reporters Thursday in Orlando at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium. Such a metaphor, he said, implies a loaded, drawn gun aimed at an enemy. He would rather characterize it as a gun “in its holster, with two trigger locks” that take two people to unlock. A “hair trigger” implies the finger could slip, with catastrophic effect, but that’s not the case, Chilton said. The nuclear deterrent is safe, he asserted, and, carrying the analogy, he wondered if it’s necessary to disassemble the gun “and mail the parts to different areas of the country.”
The Space Force is preparing for significant growth to its procurement budget in fiscal 2027, and the head of the service’s largest acquisition organization said April 14 he is asking companies to invest now in facilities and production capacity so they’re ready to execute when called upon.