Nuclear Capabilities: Report Summary

The Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics (USD (AT&L)) requested that the Defense Science Board form a Task Force to assess current and future nuclear capabilities. Specifically, the Task Force terms of reference (TOR) are: • Assess the current plan for sustaining the nuclear weapons stockpile and make recommendations to provide for relevant future capabilities. • Assess progress towards the goal of an integrated new triad of strike capabilities (nuclear, advanced conventional, and non-kinetic) within the new triad of strike, defense, and infrastructure. • Examine the DoD role in defining needs in the nuclear weapons stockpile and recommend changes in institutional arrangements to ensure an appropriate DoD role. • Examine a wide range of alternative institutional arrangements that could provide for more efficient management of the nuclear enterprise. • Examine plans to transform the nuclear weapons production complex to provide a capability to respond promptly to changes in the threat environment with new designs or designs using previously tested nuclear components. • Examine approaches to replacing weapons in the stockpile, over time, with weapons that are simpler to manufacture and that can be sustained with a smaller, less complex, less expensive design, development, certification and production enterprise.