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GAO-14-414R 1 (2014-03-18)

handle is hein.gao/gaobaahse0001 and id is 1 raw text is: G A U.S. GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE 441 G St. N.W. Washington, DC 20548 March 18, 2014 The Honorable Carl Levin Chairman The Honorable James M. Inhofe Ranking Member Committee on Armed Services United States Senate Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications: Review of DOD's Current Modernization Efforts The nuclear command, control, and communications (NC3) system is a large and complex system of systems comprised of numerous terrestrial, airborne, and space-based components used to assure connectivity between the President and nuclear forces. The current NC3 architecture consists of systems that support day-to-day nuclear and conventional operations prior to a nuclear event as well as thin line systems that are to provide survivable, secure, and enduring communications through all threat environments. Though some are specific to the nuclear mission, most NC3 systems support both strategic and conventional missions. NC3 systems support five important functions: * Situation monitoring: collection, assessment, and dissemination of information on friendly forces, adversary forces and possible targets, emerging nuclear powers, and worldwide events of interest. * Planning: development and modification of plans for the employment of nuclear weapons and other options. * Decision making: assessment, review, and consultation on the decision to use nuclear weapons and for supporting operations. * Force management: assignment, training, deployment, maintenance, and logistics support of nuclear forces before, during, and after a crisis. * Force direction: implementation of decisions regarding the execution, termination, destruction, and disablement of nuclear weapons. The Senate Armed Services Committee report accompanying a bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 mandated GAO to assess Department of Defense (DOD) efforts to sustain and improve the NC3 system.1 We addressed the mandate through three separate engagements. We issued a report on the Family of Advanced Beyond Line-of-Sight Terminals in December 2013. A second, classified report on operational assessments of the NC3 system was issued in February 2014. For this third review, we assessed the extent to which DOD is addressing known NC3 gaps or weaknesses and steps DOD has taken to transform the current NC3 system to provide improved capabilities in the future. 1See S. Rep. No. 112-173, at 199 (2012). GAO-14-414R Nuclear Command, Control, and Communications Page 1

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