The forthcoming recommendation by the Defense Department on how to proceed with nuclear warhead modernization -- refurbishing existing warheads or building new ones -- will be subject to outside technical review, delaying a decision on the controversial plan. Although analysts welcomed the review, they cautioned that it must be done right. "The risk is that this is really RRW [Reliable Replacement Warhea [2]d] through the back door," said Hans Kristensen [3] of the Federation of American Scientists [4]. The Pentagon might build "gradual support for incremental enhancements to individual systems without confronting the Obama pledge [not to build new weapons] head-on."
Links
[1] https://ploughshares.org/file/1089
[2] http://www.ananuclear.org/Portals/0/documents/ANA%20RRW%20final.pdf
[3] http://www.ploughshares.org/expert/136
[4] http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/index.html
[5] http://www.globalsecuritynewswire.org/gsn/nw_20090827_3782.php