Breaking Defense:

Several of the Pentagon’s biggest missile defense and long-range strike programs will fall under Kathleen Hicks’ portfolio if she’s confirmed as the Pentagon’s No. 2 civilian official.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has recused himself from dealing with issues involving Raytheon due to his work with the company after retiring from the Army, and Hicks told the Senate Armed Services Committee she would oversee development of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, Long Range Stand Off weapon, “and other timely missile defense issues.”

Those put Hicks at the center of some of the Pentagon’s largest, most expensive, and controversial modernization efforts as the Biden administration grapples with the massive nuclear modernization of the country’s nuclear triad and building a new generation of missiles.

“I am worried about the state of the readiness of the nuclear triad,” Hicks told the SASC this morning, “and, if confirmed, that is an area I would want to get my team in place and start to look at right away”…

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