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Stockpile Stewardship Meeting Minutes excerpt and related documents

Excerpt, Attachment 1, Stockpile Stewardship Conference Planning Meeting Minutes

10 January 2003, Pentagon, Room 3C912, 0930-1200

Obtained by the Los Alamos Study Group, Santa Fe, New Mexico

full document

Major Topics:

(1) What are the warhead characteristics and advanced concepts we will need in the post-NPR environment?

(a) Establish methodology for making choices
(b) Strategy for selecting first "small builds"
(c) Requirements for low-yield weapons, EPWs [earth penetrating weapons], enhanced radiation weapons, agent defeat weapons
(d) Effects modeling capabilities to effectively plan for these weapons
(e) What forms of testing will these new designs require?
(f) What obvious weaknesses exist in our ability to attack targets and assess target damage for present and future targets and weapon systems?
(2) How do we link service-provided platform requirements for the arsenal?
(a) What is the testing strategy for weapons more likely to be used in small strikes?
(b) Does a requirement for higher confidence in small strikes drive larger test asset inventories?
(c) Hardness and compatibility of conventional and dual use platforms
(i) How do we institutionalize these requirements?
(d) Leverage on existing SAGSAT efforts on dual-use platforms
(e) Reliability requirements
(f) Other requirements (e.g. precision)

(3) Given the size and composition of the operationally deployed stockpile, are our assumptions correct as we size the stockpile? (Leverage on existing US STRATCOM and NWC work.)

(a) Reliability replacements
(b) Augmentation quantities
(c) Reserve

(4) Plans for modernization of delivery platforms

(a) Are these plans consistent with the SSP and NMMP?
(b) Is the LEP schedule tuned to DoD needs?

(5) Regarding guidance requirements and assumptions on availability of GPS:

(a) Is GPS, or other advanced systems, available for all plans or just special cases?
(b) Do we put GPS on all systems, or just a few?

Related Documents

Statement of Work, AF Nuclear Weapons and Counterproliferation Agency (NWCA) Support

"Applicable weapon systems include existing and modified nuclear weapons as well as conventional and advanced counterforce weapons for striking CBRN targets. Additionally, the contractor shall support NWCA programs to include: decontamination technologies, directed energy weapons, non-lethal weapons, special operations, and space weapons and warfare."

Nuclear Weapons and Counterproliferation Agency Mission Scenarios (attachment to scope of work)

"1.1. Assignment 3: Complete two follow-on studies 1.1.1. An analysis of long-term collateral effects from residual leaked chemical agents. 1.1.2. A detailed method for evaluating effectiveness and collateral effects of a penetrating nuclear weapon against a hard storage bunker containing wet biological agent in multiple barrels."

"Mission Scenario Two for AF NWCA Analysis of Alternatives, Earth Penetrating Nuclear Weapon

1. Scope
Objective. The AF NWCA requires an independent Analysis of Alternatives (AoA) directed at the modification of an existing nuclear weapon to penetrate and destroy Hard and Deeply Buried Targets (HDBTs) not currently held at risk with existing conventional or nuclear weapons. Develop a work break down structure, define the critical path, and present a cost proposal for the AoA. Additionally, identify the key parameters, outputs, anything the government would be required to provide, and justification for each."

Department of Defense, Defense Technology Area Plan (1999), Chapter XI, Nuclear Technology

Obtained by WSLF through the Freedom of Information Act. Detailed discussion of technology planning aimed at making nuclear weapons more useable.

Defense Technology Objectives for the Joint Warfighting Science and Technology Plan and Defense Technology Area Plan (2000), Nuclear Technology DTO's

Obtained by WSLF through the Freedom of Information Act.

"Technical challenges are presented by the rapidly developing need to hold evolving enemy targets at risk using the reduced stockpile, and recognizing greatly increasing political and environmental constraints. As a result, we must improve our understanding of weapons outputs and target interactions without underground testing, using only calculations and the ASCI capabilities of DOE laboratories, and apply this understanding to update effects calculational capabilities and develop innovative targeting techniques to defeat increasingly clever enemies—both national and terrorist."

The Shape of Things to Come: The Nuclear Posture Review, Missile Defense, and the Dangers of a New Arms Race, WSLF Special Report, April, 2002 pdf download

Looking for New Ways to Use Nuclear Weapons: U.S. Counterproliferation Programs, Weapons Effects Research, and "Mini-Nuke" Development, WSLF Information Bulletin, Winter 2001 pdf download

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