Strategic Futures: Evolving Missions for Traditional Strategic Delivery Vehicles

This report addresses the post-Cold War use of traditional U.S. strategic nuclear forces (nuclear-armed long-range bombers, ICBMs, and submarine-launched ballistic missiles) from three perspectives: top-down (strategies to tasks), bottom-up (technological opportunities–today and tomorrow), and policy (how policy can affect R&D, acquisition, and counterproliferation strategy alternatives). The problem then is to converge on technological initiatives from a strategic and policy perspective, including directions for future work. The authors examine the potential contribution of advanced technology for U.S. long-range strategic nuclear forces that may have counterproliferation missions as well as traditional ones.