Defense Science Board report released (February 2004).

The Defense Science Board (DSB) Task Force on Future Strategic Strike Forces delivered a report to the Pentagon's acting under secretary of defense (acquisition, technology and logistics) in February 2004 <http://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/fssf.pdf> that proposes radical restructuring of the nation's nuclear weapons program. The recommendations, as stated in the report, are designed to provide "future presidents an integrated, flexible, and highly reliable set of strike options with today's tactical-level flexibility but on a global scale."

The proposed restructuring would shift the main focus of the nation's nuclear program from refurbishing and maintaining the existing stockpile to developing weapons that are more relevant to future threats.

The DSB, which began its work in summer 2003, was tasked to assess the effectiveness of the nation's current and planned strategic strike capability against threats that could be faced 30 years out. The task force found that if the United States is to provide strike options effective against future threats, it must reorient its nuclear arsenal away from "large, high-fallout weapons delivered primarily by ballistic missiles" toward smaller, more precise nuclear weapons that can be used for a variety of special missions.

The nuclear arsenal was not the only area the task force examined in mapping out the future of strategic strike. It also examined non-nuclear weapons, the systems that are needed to deliver weapons of both kinds, and the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) systems required to identify targets, among other aspects of the strategic strike mission.

The key recommendations in these other areas are:

* The Services, with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, should "procure a contingency arsenal of current successful special-purpose, non nuclear weapons" such as the recently developed Massive Ordnance Air Burst bomb;

* A limited number of new delivery systems are needed to hit time-critical targets from long range in all weather, destroy hard and deeply buried targets, and "perform these functions more reliably, accurately, and stealthily" than existing systems; and

* As the Defense Department's current ISR and battle damage assessment systems are "pushing the limits of what we can achieve from space and airborne platforms," U.S. Special Operations Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency should develop "technologies and systems for networked close-in sensors."

If the task force's recommendations are implemented, the report concludes, "the president will have realistic, high-confidence strategic strike options to reassure friends, change the behavior of enemies, and protect American interests."