# Roger Wicker **Roger Wicker** (b. July 5, 1951, Pontotoc, Mississippi) is a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi and, since January 3, 2025, chair of the [[Senate Armed Services Committee]]. He is Congress's most prominent advocate of large-scale rearmament. An Air Force officer from 1976 to 1980 and a reservist until 2003, he represented Mississippi's 1st district in the House from 1995 to 2007. Governor Haley Barbour appointed him to the Senate on December 31, 2007 to succeed [[Trent Lott]]. He won the 2008 special election and was re-elected in 2012, 2018 and 2024. He previously chaired the Commerce Committee (2019–2021) and the NRSC (2015–2017). ## The rearmament program - **The blueprint.** On May 29, 2024, as SASC ranking member, he published *21st Century Peace Through Strength: A Generational Investment in the U.S. Military*. It called for raising defense spending toward **5% of GDP** over time. It also called for a 355-ship Navy, three attack submarines a year, reversing fighter retirements, a permanent armored brigade in Poland, and making nuclear modernization a "national priority." He framed the threat as an "Axis of Aggressors." - **Acquisition reform.** His [[FoRGED Act]] (December 2024) is the Senate's acquisition-reform vehicle and fed into the [[NDAA]]. - **The FY2027 NDAA.** SASC advanced it **18–9** on June 11, 2026. S. 4784 authorizes about **$1.14 trillion**, the full request and roughly 28% above FY2026 enacted levels. That is before the separate ~$350 billion in defense money the administration assumes will come through [[Reconciliation]]. ## Oversight Wicker is a hawk, not a rubber stamp. On March 27, 2025, he and ranking member [[Jack Reed]] jointly asked the Pentagon inspector general to evaluate [[Pete Hegseth]]'s Signal messages (see [[Hegseth Signalgate]]). A Republican chair signing that letter was the high point of institutional response to the episode, and what it asked for was a report. ## Why he matters for the KB As SASC chair he writes the Senate NDAA and sets the defense-spending trajectory that the [[Military-Industrial Complex]] feeds on, including programs like [[Golden Dome]]. ## Related - [[Senate Armed Services Committee]] · [[Jack Reed]] - [[NDAA]] · [[FoRGED Act]] · [[Golden Dome]] - [[Hegseth Signalgate]]