U.S. Nuclear Weapons

Flagging nuclear terrorism and proliferation as the top U.S. national security priorities for the first time, the White House released its long-awaited Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) April 6. The congressionally mandated report provides a comprehensive description of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and strategy for the next five to 10 years. The 2010 NPR is the third post-Cold War review—the others were in 1994 and 2001—and is the first to be published in an unclassified form.

President Obama's new nuclear policy reduces the role of U.S. nuclear weapons in the country's security strategy and moves the United States and Russia toward a more stable strategic relationship with each side having lower levels of nuclear arms.

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.) told Arms Control Today, “I will not authorize the development of new nuclear weapons.” In its first months, the new administration stated on its Web site that it “will stop the development of new nuclear weapons.” Now, as the administration wraps up its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and presents its fiscal year 2011 budget request to Congress, some important details are emerging about what President Obama’s pledge really means and how the administration defines a “new” nuclear weapon.

The Obama administration is requesting $7.0 billion for fiscal year 2011 to maintain the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile, a rise of almost 10 percent from the $6.4 billion Congress appropriated for the effort for fiscal year 2010.

Administration officials say the increase is necessary to make up for insufficient funding over the past decade. In a Feb. 18 speech at the National Defense University in Washington, Vice President Joe Biden said that, under the administration’s plan, funding would increase by $5 billion over the next five years.