WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Roger F. Wicker, R-Miss., Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and U.S. Representative Mike Rogers, R-Ala., Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, released a statement following an announcement by the Department of Defense on the B61 gravity bomb.

“While we welcome the step of creating a variant of the B61, which will better allow the Air Force to reach hardened and deeply-buried targets, it is only a modest step in the right direction. The B61-13 is not a long-term solution, but it will provide our commanders, particularly in INDOPACOM and EUCOM, with more flexibility against these target sets. As the Strategic Posture Commission recently noted, China and Russia are in a full-on arms race, and the U.S. is running in place. Dramatic transformation of our deterrent posture – not incremental or piecemeal changes – is required to address this threat.”