The Reliable Replacement Warhead program, which was slashed in President Obama's FY2010 budget, has always been the subject of intense controversy. The RRW's supporters claim that it is a cornerstone of America's deterrent strategy, as deterrence only works if your opponent believes you are willing and able to retaliate. Detractors say that the RRW is like many other weapons programs; its sole purpose being maintaining jobs in Congressional districts. Additionally, they say that the RRW is likely to anger our allies and rogue nations.
I think the answer is somewhere in the middle. We have to ensure that our strategic forces are functional to serve the purposes they were built for, namely providing stable deterrence for the United States. On the other hand, our strategic forces are already incredibly capable, and are able to respond to a variety of threats across a full spectrum. Both the Secretaries of Energy and Defense have certified for the past 9 years that our forces meet acceptable standards.
We have to make sure our nuclear weapons are safe and reliable, but I'm not sure the RRW is effective at doing this. New facilities to process plutonium and uranium would be required, and that is not likely to be cheap. In addition, if we went about replacing warheads on 2,000 nuclear weapons, extensive testing would have to be done, and I don't think the President, Congress, or DOD is interested in doing that.
Our strategic forces and delivery systems are easily the most advanced in the world, and we should not look to modernize for the sake of modernizing. In addition, the use of PALS and other security measures ensure that these weapons don't detonate accidently and if a mishap does occur, then the effects are minimal. At some point in the future, we might need to upgrade to the W76 warhead, but right now, it doesn't make much sense.
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