“The President does not need the concurrence of either his military advisors or the U.S. Congress to order the launch of nuclear weapons,” the Congressional Research Service reminded readers last month in an updated “defense primer” on “Command and Control of Nuclear Forces.”
The CRS defense primer series consists of two-page introductions to a variety of basic military and intelligence topics. The primers do not generally present information that is altogether new to specialists, but they are a convenient way to increase national security literacy among non-specialist members of Congress and the public.
Recently updated items in the series include the following.
Defense Primer: Commanding U.S. Military Operations, CRS In Focus, updated December 20, 2018
Defense Primer: Intelligence Support to Military Operations, CRS In Focus, updated December 20, 2018
Defense Primer: U.S. Defense Industrial Base, CRS In Focus, updated December 20, 2018
Defense Primer: Procurement, CRS In Focus, updated December 20, 2018
Defense Primer: Information Operations, CRS In Focus, updated December 18, 2018
Defense Primer: Cyberspace Operations, CRS In Focus, updated December 18, 2018
Defense Primer: President’s Constitutional Authority with Regard to the Armed Forces, CRS In Focus, updated December 17, 2018
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Other new and updated reports from the Congressional Research Service include the following.
The Special Counsel Investigation After the Attorney General’s Resignation, CRS Legal Sidebar, January 2, 2019
Government Expenditures on Defense Research and Development by the United States and Other OECD Countries: Fact Sheet, updated December 19, 2018
Executive Branch Ethics and Financial Conflicts of Interest: Disclosure, CRS Legal Sidebar, January 2, 2019
DHS’s Cybersecurity Mission–An Overview, CRS In Focus, updated December 19, 2018
New U.S. Policy Regarding Nuclear Exports to China, CRS In Focus, December 17, 2018
Congress’s Authority to Influence and Control Executive Branch Agencies, updated December 19, 2018
The FAS Nuclear Notebook is one of the most widely sourced reference materials worldwide for reliable information about the status of nuclear weapons, and has been published in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists since 1987.. The Nuclear Notebook is researched and written by the staff of the Federation of American Scientists’ Nuclear Information Project: Director Hans […]
On 14 April 2023, the Belarusian Ministry of Defence released a short video of a Su-25 pilot explaining his new role in delivering “special [nuclear] munitions” following his training in Russia. The features seen in the video, as well as several other open-source clues, suggest that Lida Air Base––located only 40 kilometers from the Lithuanian border and the […]
A photo in a Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) student briefing from 2022 shows four people inspecting what appears to be a damaged B61 nuclear bomb.
In early-February 2023, the Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) had informed Congress that China now has more launchers for Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) than the United States. The report is the latest in a serious of revelations over the past four years about China’s growing nuclear weapons arsenal and the deepening […]