Targeting and Employment Planning

During the Cold War, the United States maintained the numbers and types of nuclear weapons that it believed it needed to threaten the full range of potentialtargets in the Soviet Union. The Bush Administration has not described the specific capabilities it will target with this new strategy. According to the Administration, however, the United States cannot be certain where these threats will appear in the future. (7) The Administration has also linked themodernization of the nuclear weapons complex to its plans to reduce the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Nevertheless, many analysts fear that the United States will eventually produce new weapons to supportan enhanced warfighting role for nuclearweapons. U.S. Nuclear Posture and Nonproliferation Policy

The Bush Administration has stated that nuclear weapons will play a role in U.S. security policy for the foreseeable future. Critics, however, arguethat the U.S. approach may undermine U.S. efforts to discourage nuclear proliferation.
In the 2001 Nuclear Posture Review, the Bush Administration outlined a new role forU.S. nuclear weapons thatgoes beyond the concept of deterrence from the Cold War. It also identified a new targeting strategy that would seekto threaten specific capabilities inadversary nations. Furthermore, the Administration has pledged to restore and enhance the U.S. nuclear weaponsinfrastructure, as part of the U.S. effort todeter the emergence of new threats in the future. In implementing the NPR, the Administration has requestedfunding for studies on new types of nuclearweapons. The Administration claims these projects, if they eventually produce new weapons, would enhancedeterrence; critics claim they will make nuclearuse more likely and undermine U.S. nonproliferation goals. This report will be updated as needed.