Download or read book Encyclopedia of Strategic Nuclear Forces Reports on Missiles Bombers Submarines Triad Warheads Modernization Plans ICBM SLBM START Treaty Long Range Standoff LRSO and Verification written by U. S. Military and published by . This book was released on 2017-10-02 with total page 399 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This unique book reproduces sixteen important government documents, reports, and studies dealing with American strategic nuclear forces, including the elements of the nuclear triad (missiles, bombers, and submarines), arms control issues and treaties, and modernization plans. Documents include: U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues (2015) * U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues (2013) * Counterforce Issues for the U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces * Considerations for a U.S. Nuclear Force Structure below a 1,000-Warhead Limit * Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Nuclear Capabilities * Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2014 to 2023 * Adherence to and Compliance with Arms Control, Nonproliferation, and Disarmament Agreements and Commitments * The National Military Strategy of the United States of America 2015 * Projected Costs of U.S. Nuclear Forces, 2015 to 2024 * Air Force Global Strike Command "To Deter and Assure" Strategic Master Plan 2014 * Task Force Report: Assessment of Nuclear Monitoring and Verification Technologies * U.S. Strategic Nuclear Forces: Background, Developments, and Issues (2009) * U.S. Nuclear Weapons: Changes in Policy and Force Structure * ICBMs - Their Relevance to U.S. Security and the United States Air Force in the 21st Century * Culture Clash: Bomber Nuclear Operations in a Post-Cold War World * Nuclear Strategy in the New World Order. Introduction * Background: The Strategic Triad * Force Structure and Size During the Cold War * Force Structure and Size After the Cold War * Current and Future Force Structure and Size * Strategic Nuclear Delivery Vehicles: Recent Reductions and Current Modernization Programs * Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) * Peacekeeper (MX) * Minuteman III * Minuteman Modernization Programs. * Future Programs * Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles * The SSGN Program * The Backfit Program * Basing Changes * Warhead Loadings * Modernization Plans and Programs * The Ohio Replacement Program (ORP) Program * Bombers * B-1 Bomber * B-2 Bomber * B-52 Bomber * Future Bomber Plans * Sustaining the Nuclear Weapons Enterprise * Issues for Congress * Force Size * Force Structure * The Cost of Nuclear Weapons Since the early 1960s the United States has maintained a "triad" of strategic nuclear delivery vehicles. The United States first developed these three types of nuclear delivery vehicles, in large part, because each of the military services wanted to play a role in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. However, during the 1960s and 1970s, analysts developed a more reasoned rationale for the nuclear "triad." They argued that these different basing modes had complementary strengths and weaknesses. They would enhance deterrence and discourage a Soviet first strike because they complicated Soviet attack planning and ensured the survivability of a significant portion of the U.S. force in the event of a Soviet first strike. The different characteristics might also strengthen the credibility of U.S. targeting strategy. For example, ICBMs eventually had the accuracy and prompt responsiveness needed to attack hardened targets such as Soviet command posts and ICBM silos, SLBMs had the survivability needed to complicate Soviet efforts to launch a disarming first strike and to retaliate if such an attack were attempted, and heavy bombers could be dispersed quickly and launched to enhance their survivability, and they could be recalled to their bases if a crisis did not escalate into conflict. According to unclassified estimates, the number of delivery vehicles (ICBMs, SLBMs, and nuclear-capable bombers) in the U.S. force structure grew steadily through the mid-1960s, with the greatest number of delivery vehicles, 2,268, deployed in 1967.
Download or read book Counterair Operations written by United States. Air Force and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 34 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Future of the U S Intercontinental Ballistic Missile Force written by Lauren Caston and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2014-02-04 with total page 185 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors assess alternatives for a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) across a broad set of potential characteristics and situations. They use the current Minuteman III as a baseline to develop a framework to characterize alternative classes of ICBMs, assess the survivability and effectiveness of possible alternatives, and weigh those alternatives against their cost.
Download or read book Making Twenty First Century Strategy written by Dennis M. Drew and published by www.Militarybookshop.CompanyUK. This book was released on 2010-05 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This new work defines national security strategy, its objectives, the problems it confronts, and the influences that constrain and facilitate its development and implementation in a post-Cold War, post-9/11 environment. The authors note that making and implementing national strategy centers on risk management and present a model for assessing strategic risks and the process for allocating limited resources to reduce them. The major threats facing the United States now come from its unique status as "the sole remaining superpower" against which no nation-state or other entity can hope to compete through conventional means. The alternative is what is now called asymmetrical or fourth generation warfare. Drew and Snow discuss all these factors in detail and bring them together by examining the continuing problems of making strategy in a changed and changing world. Originally published in 2006.
Download or read book Trends in Russia s Armed Forces written by Keith Crane and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2019-10-10 with total page 99 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The authors assess how Russian military forces are postured and resourced and how they are likely to operate. They also discuss the goals and effects of Russian military reform efforts, including initiatives that span all of the Russian armed forces’ services and independent branches. Touching on most of Russia’s armed forces’ major capabilities, the authors conclude with a look at how those capabilities are being integrated in practice.
Download or read book Destroying the Village written by Campbell Craig and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the early days of the Cold War, thermonuclear conflict was everywhere an imminent threat. With the realization that mutual destruction was the likely result of a nuclear war, US policy makers were forced to articulate a coherent stance on what they would do if the United States went to war with the USSR. The paradox of defeat or mutual annihilation was one that plagued American policy makers and scholars, whatever their stated position.
Download or read book Nuclear Deterrence in Europe written by James T. Quinlivan and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2011-08-05 with total page 133 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Through a variety of policies and actions--and most recently in a new military doctrine adopted in February 2010--Russia has indicated the types of situations and threats that might cause it to resort to using nuclear weapons. This volume examines Russia's evolving framework for nuclear deterrence and its implications for U.S. military operations in Europe.
Download or read book The Proliferation Puzzle written by Zachary S. Davis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published in 1993, this volume was unique in its scope and approach: Unlike most literature on nuclear weapons proliferation at the time, the essays in this volume offer theoretical discussions and suggest testable hypotheses about the causes and effects of nuclear weapons proliferation. The proliferation of nuclear weapons is an ideal subject for social science scholarship, and such scholarship is especially timely now. Among the topics discussed in The Proliferation Puzzle are: The building of nuclear weapons is a complex task touching upon many of the subjects of study at the core of social science and international relations. Nuclear weapons may be acquired as a hedge against external threat, for reasons of national prestige, or as a result of pressures by domestic coalitions among scientists, bureaucrats, and the military. They may be sought for defensive purposes or to support hegemonic aspirations. Nuclear weapons also raise questions about civilian command and control, especially in crisis situations. During the last two decades the acquisition of nuclear weapons has been proscribed by the non-proliferation regime. The decisions countries made about acquiring these weapons and the manner they chose to build them serve as a test of the efficacy of this particular regime, and of international regimes more generally. Nuclear weapons were introduced at the time bipolarity became the international order. As the world moves away from bipolarity, there is a need to answer questions such as: What would be the effect of nuclear weapons in a multipolar order? How will the spread of nuclear weapons affect the distribution of capabilities among states? If nuclear weapons spread to additional countries, will they enhance stability or exacerbate instability? Can the spread of these weapons be managed or controlled? This book brings together scholars from different schools within international relations and the social sciences to address the question of why nuclear weapons spread. A disciplined, rigorous examination of proliferation is important not only for scholarship but also for informed policymaking. The purpose of social science is to formulate hypotheses and devise theories that advance our understanding of society and aid in the fashioning of enlightened policy. The essays in this volume show how explicit hypotheses about the causes and consequences of nuclear weapons proliferation provide a deeper understanding of the problem and suggest specific, theory-informed policy recommendations.
Download or read book Russia s Nuclear Weapons written by Amy F Woolf and published by Independently Published. This book was released on 2020-01-04 with total page 46 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia's nuclear forces consist of both long-range, strategic systems-including intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs), and heavy bombers-and shorter- and medium-range delivery systems. Russia is modernizing its nuclear forces, replacing Soviet-era systems with new missiles, submarines and aircraft while developing new types of delivery systems. Although Russia's number of nuclear weapons has declined sharply since the end of Cold War, it retains a stockpile of thousands of warheads, with more than 1,500 warheads deployed on missiles and bombers capable of reaching U.S. territory. Doctrine and Deployment During the Cold War, the Soviet Union valued nuclear weapons for both their political and military attributes. While Moscow pledged that it would not be the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict, many analysts and scholars believed the Soviet Union integrated nuclear weapons into its warfighting plans. After the Cold War, Russia did not retain the Soviet "no first use" policy, and it has revised its nuclear doctrine several times to respond to concerns about its security environment and the capabilities of its conventional forces. When combined with military exercises and Russian officials' public statements, this evolving doctrine seems to indicate that Russia has potentially placed a greater reliance on nuclear weapons and may threaten to use them during regional conflicts. This doctrine has led some U.S. analysts to conclude that Russia has adopted an "escalate to de-escalate" strategy, where it might threaten to use nuclear weapons if it were losing a conflict with a NATO member, in an effort to convince the United States and its NATO allies to withdraw from the conflict. Russian officials, along with some scholars and observers in the United States and Europe, dispute this interpretation; however, concerns about this doctrine have informed recommendations for changes in the U.S. nuclear posture. Russia's current modernization cycle for its nuclear forces began in the early 2000s and is likely to conclude in the 2020s. In addition, in March 2018, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that Russia was developing new types of nuclear systems. While some see these weapons as a Russian attempt to achieve a measure of superiority over the United States, others note that they likely represent a Russian response to concerns about emerging U.S. missile defense capabilities. These new Russian systems include, among others, a heavy ICBM with the ability to carry multiple warheads, a hypersonic glide vehicle, an autonomous underwater vehicle, and a nuclear-powered cruise missile. The hypersonic glide vehicle, carried on an existing long-range ballistic missile, entered service in late 2019.
Download or read book Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms written by United States. Joint Chiefs of Staff and published by . This book was released on 1979 with total page 392 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Case for U S Nuclear Weapons in the 21st Century written by Brad Roberts and published by Stanford University Press. This book was released on 2015-12-09 with total page 351 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “An excellent contribution to the debate on the future role of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence in American foreign policy.” ―Contemporary Security Policy This book is a counter to the conventional wisdom that the United States can and should do more to reduce both the role of nuclear weapons in its security strategies and the number of weapons in its arsenal. The case against nuclear weapons has been made on many grounds—including historical, political, and moral. But, Brad Roberts argues, it has not so far been informed by the experience of the United States since the Cold War in trying to adapt deterrence to a changed world, and to create the conditions that would allow further significant changes to U.S. nuclear policy and posture. Drawing on the author’s experience in the making and implementation of U.S. policy in the Obama administration, this book examines that real-world experience and finds important lessons for the disarmament enterprise. Central conclusions of the work are that other nuclear-armed states are not prepared to join the United States in making reductions, and that unilateral steps by the United States to disarm further would be harmful to its interests and those of its allies. The book ultimately argues in favor of patience and persistence in the implementation of a balanced approach to nuclear strategy that encompasses political efforts to reduce nuclear dangers along with military efforts to deter them. “Well-researched and carefully argued.” ―Foreign Affairs
Download or read book U S Strategic Nuclear Forces written by Amy F. Woolf and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2009-11 with total page 27 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Background: The Strategic Triad: Force Structure and Size During the Cold War; Force Structure and Size After the Cold War; Future Force Structure and Size; (3) Strategic Nuclear Delivery Vehicles: Ongoing Plans and Programs: (a) Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles: Peacekeeper; Minuteman III; Minuteman Modernization Programs; Future Programs; (b) Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles: The SSGN Program; The Backfit Program; Basing Changes; Warhead Issues; Modernization Plans and Programs; Future Programs; (c) Bombers: B-1 Bomber; B-2 Bomber; B-52 Bomber; Future Bomber Plans; (4) Issues for Congress: Force Size; Force Structure; Safety, Security, and Management Issues. Illustrations.
Download or read book Hunters and Killers written by Norman Polmar and published by US Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning with anti-U-Boat efforts during the Battle of the Atlantic of World War II and ending with newly-developed tactics of the 21st Century, the authors examine the many facets of anti-submarine warfare.
Download or read book Managing Nuclear Modernization Challenges for the U S Air Force written by Don Snyder and published by . This book was released on 2019-10-29 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After decades of near neglect, the Air Force is embarking on a vast modernization of its portion of the nation's nuclear deterrence capabilities--but these activities face a range of challenges. This report identifies and describes means to allay these challenges, with a focus on the integrated planning and preparation for mission success across programs, and special emphasis on the challenges of operational testing and nuclear certification.
Download or read book Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era written by Vipin Narang and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-25 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is in a second nuclear age in which regional powers play an increasingly prominent role. These states have small nuclear arsenals, often face multiple active conflicts, and sometimes have weak institutions. How do these nuclear states—and potential future ones—manage their nuclear forces and influence international conflict? Examining the reasoning and deterrence consequences of regional power nuclear strategies, this book demonstrates that these strategies matter greatly to international stability and it provides new insights into conflict dynamics across important areas of the world such as the Middle East, East Asia, and South Asia. Vipin Narang identifies the diversity of regional power nuclear strategies and describes in detail the posture each regional power has adopted over time. Developing a theory for the sources of regional power nuclear strategies, he offers the first systematic explanation of why states choose the postures they do and under what conditions they might shift strategies. Narang then analyzes the effects of these choices on a state's ability to deter conflict. Using both quantitative and qualitative analysis, he shows that, contrary to a bedrock article of faith in the canon of nuclear deterrence, the acquisition of nuclear weapons does not produce a uniform deterrent effect against opponents. Rather, some postures deter conflict more successfully than others. Nuclear Strategy in the Modern Era considers the range of nuclear choices made by regional powers and the critical challenges they pose to modern international security.
Download or read book Air Base Defense written by Alan J. Vick and published by . This book was released on 2020-07-15 with total page 159 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gap between the growing cruise and ballistic missile threat to U.S. Air Force bases in Europe and the U.S. capacity and capability to counter the threat is worrisome. This report assesses alternative Air Force courses of action.
Download or read book China s Evolving Nuclear Deterrent written by Eric Heginbotham and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2017-03-06 with total page 213 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: China’s approach to nuclear deterrence has been broadly consistent since its first test in 1964, but it has recently accelerated nuclear force modernization. China’s strategic environment is likely to grow more complex, and nuclear constituencies are gaining a larger bureaucratic voice. Beijing is unlikely to change official nuclear policies but will probably increase emphasis on nuclear deterrence and may adjust the definition of key concepts.
