Reliable Replacement Warhead
The nuclear weapons that the United States currently has in its stockpile were largely designed and built during the Cold War. NNSA is currently working diligently through its Stockpile Stewardship Program to extend the life of these current weapons. However, the weapons were not designed with security and longevity as the top priorities.
NNSA and the Department of Defense have requested money to look at ways to address long-term reliability issues, enhance security features, and alleviate potential aging issues in order to reduce the chance of having to return to underground nuclear testing.
With a reliable replacement concept (originally known as a Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW), NNSA would be able to upgrade certain safety, security and other features in current weapons using modern technology, while still keeping the same explosive yields and other military characteristics. By making use of today’s security technology to prevent use by terrorists and incorporating modern safety features, the redesigned warhead would start the nation down the path towards ensuring long-term confidence in a more secure, smaller and safer nuclear weapons stockpile.
The reliable replacement effort would be in parallel with efforts to eliminate nuclear weapons from the stockpile that are no longer needed for national security purposes. There is a sharp increase in the number of U.S. nuclear weapons being dismantled, permanently removing them from the stockpile. NNSA has accelerated its dismantlement process, following President Bush’s 2004 decision to cut the number of U.S. nuclear weapons dramatically. An RRW would allow the U.S. to further reduce its stockpile, because it would no longer need to maintain extra weapons as a hedge against an unforseen problem with the aging stockpile.
The RRW would:
- Better assure long-term confidence in the reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile;
- Enhance security and prevent use by terrorists, rogue nations or criminal organizations, through state-of-the-art technology;
- Improve the safety of the stockpile;
- Help to develop a nuclear weapons infrastructure that is more responsive to future national security needs;
- Utilize and sustain critical nuclear weapons design and production skills;
- Enable a reduced stockpile size, by increasing confidence in the infrastructure to produce weapons if and when they are needed; and
- Decrease the likelihood that a nuclear test will be needed.
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