U.S. Lawmakers Demand Study on Future Nuclear Weapons

The U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee has demanded that the next president conduct a thorough review of the government’s nuclear weapons plans, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday (see GSN, May 10).

The requested report would follow on the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review conducted by the Bush administration shortly after it took office.  The committee mandated the study in its report accompanying the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill.

“The committee believes that it is imperative that the next administration clearly articulate its nuclear policy at the outset of its tenure,” the report says.  “The new NPR would include a review of the policy objectives with respect to nuclear forces and weapons and include the relationship among (U.S.) nuclear deterrence policy, targeting strategy and arms control objectives.”

“In addition, the new NPR would look at the role that missile defense capabilities and conventional strike forces play in determining the size and role of nuclear forces,” the report adds (Keith Costa, Inside the Pentagon, June 14).

Meanwhile, one administration official yesterday urged other nations not to overreact to U.S. plans to develop a new nuclear warhead (see GSN, June 7).

The Bush administration has sought develop the Reliable Replacement Warhead to replace warheads now deployed on U.S. ballistic missile submarines.

The new warhead should not be interpreted as a U.S. effort to expand its nuclear arsenal, but rather as a program that simply extends the lifetime of U.S. weapons, said John Harvey, policy planning director at the National Nuclear Security Administration.

"The RRW program is simply accomplishing the same goals as life extension," an ongoing effort to maintain the reliability of U.S. nuclear weapons, he said.

"It's not seeking to come out with whole new generations of nuclear weapons," Harvey added.  "The idea here is to provide the same military capabilities as the one it replaces” (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo!News, June 14).

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