Pentagon Offers Early Look at Nuclear Posture Review

By Kris Osborn, Managing Editor, Warrior Maven

Senior Pentagon leaders have offered an initial window into the soon-to-be released DoD Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) aimed at addressing the significance and continued acceleration of US nuclear weapons.

Once the NPR is released, which is expected early next month, many of the details will not be available for public consumption. Nonetheless, Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told reporters that the report unambiguously affirms the critical importance of the nuclear triad, all three dimensions to the US arsenal of nuclear weapons: ICBMs, submarines and bombers.

“I would tell you that we have affirmed the utility of the triad to a variety of studies going back several years. Sometimes the triad
comes under attack as not being sufficiently flexible enough,” McKenzie told reporters according to a Pentagon transcript.

McKenzie’s comments offered one of the first glimpses at the NPR, which appears to unequivocably aligned with current Air Force and Navy efforts to accelerate nuclear weapons modernization. Despite the funding challenges, and ongoing upgrades to legacy nuclear weapons, the aging arsenal has been critically in need of modernization. Senior DoD leaders, buttressed by Congressional support, are now moving quickly to engineer new weapons across the nuclear triad.

DoD is immersed in current efforts to fast-track development and prototypes of a new Ground Based Strategic Deterrent ICBM, Air Force developers have told Warrior Maven.

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                         \\\\*Lockheed GBSD photo - although Lockheed was not chosen as an initial GBSD developers\\\\*

Early prototyping, including expected prototype “shoot off” testing is slated for 2020, service developers have told Warrior Maven in recent interviews. Northrop Grumman and Boeing are both now under contract to build the new weapon. The Air Force plans to build at least 400 GBSDs, Air Force senior leaders have said.