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1 1 (December 15, 2022)

handle is hein.crs/govejuo0001 and id is 1 raw text is: Congre &conaI Resedrch Sen/ic hnorming Ah eg iltive debate sine 1914 S Updated December 15, 2022 Defense Primer: Command and Control of Nuclear Forces The U.S. President has sole authority to authorize the use of U.S. nuclear weapons. This authority is inherent in his constitutional role as Commander in Chief. The President can seek counsel from his military advisors; those advisors are then required to transmit and implement the orders authorizing nuclear use. But, as General John Hyten, then the Commander of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM), noted, his job is to give advice, while the authority to order a launch lies with the President. General Milley, the current Commander of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), made a similar point in a memo he provided to Congress in September 2021. He noted that he is a part of the chain of communication, in his role as the President's primary military advisor, but he is not in the chain of command for authorizing a nuclear launch. He also noted that, if the President ordered a launch, the CJCS would participate in a decision conference to authenticate the presidential orders and to ensure that the President was fully informed about the implications of the launch. The President, however, does not need the concurrence of either his military advisors or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons. Neither the military nor Congress can overrule these orders. As former STRATCOM Commander General Robert Kehler has noted, members of the military are bound by the Uniform Code of Military Justice to follow orders provided they are legal and have come from competent authority. But questions about the legality of the order-whether it is consistent with the requirements, under the laws of armed conflict (LOAC), for necessity, proportionality, and distinction-are more likely to lead to consultations and changes in the President's order than to a refusal by the military to execute the order. The Nuclear Command and Control System (NCCS) According to DOD's Nuclear Matters Handbook, the elements of the nuclear command and control system (NCCS) support the President, through his military commanders, in exercising presidential authority over U.S. nuclear weapons operations. The system relies on a collection of activities, processes, and procedures performed by appropriate military commanders and support personnel that, through the chain of command, allow for senior-level decisions on nuclear weapons employment. Specifically, the NCCS provides the President with the means to authorize the use of nuclear weapons in a crisis and to prevent unauthorized or accidental use. The NCCS collects information on threats to the United States, communicates that information to the President, advises the President on response options, communicates the President's chosen response to the forces in the field, and controls the targeting and application of those forces. Within this system, radars, satellites, and processing systems provide unambiguous, reliable, accurate, timely, survivable, and enduring warning about attacks on the United States, its allies, and its forces overseas. If these capabilities identified an attack or an anomalous event, the President would participate in an emergency communications conference with the Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and other military advisors. They would offer the President details and an assessment of the possible incoming attack, while the STRATCOM commander would explain the President's options for a retaliatory attack. The President would then evaluate and respond to this information and decide whether to authorize the use of U.S. nuclear weapons. He would communicate his choices and provide this authorization through a communications device known as the nuclear football-a suitcase carried by a military aid who is always near the President. The suitcase is equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans for certain targets. The President could choose from these prepared plans or, time permitting, ask STRATCOM to prepare an alternative. If the President did choose to respond with a nuclear attack, he would identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. These codes are recorded on an ID card, known as the biscuit, that the President carries at all times. Once identified, he would transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and STRATCOM. The Secretary of Defense would possibly contribute to the process by confirming that the order came from the President, but this role could also be filled by an officer in the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon. STRATCOM would implement the order by preparing to launch the weapons needed for the selected option. According to Bruce Blair, an expert on U.S. command and control, once the order is transmitted to the war room, they would execute it in a minute or so. If an immediate response was selected, the (land-based) Minuteman missiles will fire in two minutes. The submarines will fire in 15 minutes. Blair also noted that there is no way to reverse the order. Options for Nuclear Use Because this system was designed during the Cold war, it was, as former director of the CIA General Michael Hayden noted, designed for speed and decisiveness. It's not designed to debate the decision. Long-range missiles attacking the United States from Russian territory could reach U.S. territory in around 30 minutes; sea-based systems deployed closer to U.S. shores might arrive in half that time. If the United States wanted to retaliate before U.S. weapons, or, more importantly, the U.S. command and control system, were degraded by an attack, then the entire process of identifying, assessing, communicating, deciding, and launching would have to take place in less than that

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