Senator and Astronaut Mark Kelly says Trumps golden dome could push enemies to nukes
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Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the Elon Musk podcast. This is a show where we discuss the critical crossroads that shape SpaceX, Tesla, X, the Boring Company, and Neuralink. I'm your host, Will Walden. Thank you, Senator Cotton. Senator Kelly, you are recognized. Thank you, Madam Chair, General Cotton, General Whiting. Thank you for being here. I want to first touch on Golden Dome, and then I want to save some time for Slicum and

Agree, nuclear deterrence keeps us safe. And General Cotton, you mentioned two 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 adversary's 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 can 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 Guillaume 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 the ground-based interceptors piece, once again, I don't own that platform. That platform belongs to North Common. It's probably best for General Guillaume to answer that. I do believe, and we heard my colleague talk about the layered approach approach.

That is kind of the essence of Golden Dome for America. I think that's the answer and the key on how that system can be deliverable moving forward. All right. And thank you. Thank you, General. I do agree. I think it's something we need to look into. And we need to 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 Slickum, and I know it was brought up here also, General, one of my concerns here is one of the things that 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'd 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.

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It might be a good place to find your Zen. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. 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 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-PACOM theater in regards to our allies and partners' ability of letting us have dual-use nuclear-capable things arrive on their shores. The fact that I can now have B-52s fly into Japan.

where I didn't before and on the Korean Peninsula. I think there's work to be done, but I think it can be accomplished. Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thanks for listening to the Elon Musk podcast today. I appreciate your support and I appreciate you spending the time here with me today.

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