Yesterday, I attended a meeting on the Nuclear Posture Review at the Pentagon. The ground-rules weren’t super clear, so I won’t say anything about the meeting itself.
The Pentagon did, however, use the occasion to release two fact sheets:
Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) Background
The NPR, Arms Control and Deterrence
The fact that they are dated August 6 is a little odd, but no one working in the building seemed to notice that we were having a meeting about nuclear weapons on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing. American ahistoricism at its weirdest.
The fact sheets are significantly more interesting than the Terms of Reference Fact Sheet, which is basically just the Congressional language (compare with the text in the comments) with some helpful elaborations about process.
The most interesting bit is the commitment, in the background fact sheet to a “safe, secure, effective and reliable” nuclear deterrent. In Prague, President Obama omitted reliable.
Mark my words, the Reliable Replacement Warhead will be back.