U.S. Nuclear Weapons Still Needed To Deter Aggression, Though Fewer Warheads Suffice

By George Lobsenz

A congressionally chartered commission backed the Obama administration’s emphasis on nuclear nonproliferation as increasingly critical to national security, but said the president also had to bolster U.S. nuclear weapons capability by proceeding with selected "modernization" of warheads and by restructuring and broadening the mission of the Energy Department’s National Nuclear Security Administration and its nuclear weapons labs.

The Congressional Commission on the Strategic Posture of the United States largely endorsed President Obama’s view that greater U.S. leadership on nonproliferation was vital because the world is approaching a dangerous "tipping point" on nuclear terrorism threats and weapons development by North Korea, Iran and other hostile nations.

In particular, the panel — which was chaired by William Perry, defense secretary under President Clinton — said the United States had to work with other countries to ensure that the expansion of nuclear power does not lead to a "cascade of proliferation." It specifically endorsed international efforts to guarantee nuclear fuel supply and disposal services to emerging nuclear countries to prevent them from establishing uranium enrichment or spent fuel reprocessing capabilities.

But while highlighting the importance of nonproliferation, the commission said Congress and the nation could not lose sight of the continuing need to maintain the U.S. nuclear arsenal to deter any geopolitical challenges by other countries and, in particular, to bolster central European nations that feel vulnerable to Russia’s substantial tactical nuclear forces.

In a report that is expected to influence the Obama administration’s ongoing review of the nation’s nuclear weapons, arms control and nonproliferation policies, the commission said that although the need for nuclear deterrence was not as big as during the Cold War, "an awareness of its critical role needs to be restored in the United States and this, too, must be emphasized by our national leaders."

In that regard, the commission said there is a clear need to modernize the nation’s Cold War-era nuclear weapons arsenal and to overhaul and rejuvenate the weapons labs and decades-old warhead production facilities managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), the semi-autonomous weapons agency within DOE.

Among the many specific recommendations in the commission’s highly detailed and comprehensive report, Capitol Hill and the Obama administration are likely to closely scrutinize the commission’s views on warhead modernization, which was pursued by NNSA under the Bush administration through its "reliable replacement warhead" (RRW) initiative.

The RRW was shot down by Congress because of concerns by lawmakers that development of a new warhead by the United States would be destabilizing and undermine U.S. nonproliferation policy; they also said the Bush administration failed to make the strategic case for a new warhead. The Obama administration formally cancelled the program in March.