Nuclear Weapons

Pentagon Sets New Framework for Security Policy

10.03.12 | 2 min read | Text by Steven Aftergood

The Department of Defense this week established a new Defense Security Enterprise that is intended to unify and standardize the Department’s multiple, inconsistent security policies.

The new security framework “shall provide an integrated, risk-managed structure to guide DSE policy implementation and investment decisions, and to provide a sound basis for oversight and evolution.”

The Defense Security Enterprise, launched October 1 by DoD Directive 5200.43, is a response to the often incoherent and internally contradictory state of DoD security policy.

An Inspector General report earlier this year said that there were at least 43 distinct DoD policies on security that could not all be implemented together.

“The sheer volume of security policies that are not coordinated or integrated makes it difficult for those at the field level to ensure consistent and comprehensive policy implementation,” the DoD IG wrote.  (“DoD Security Policy is Incoherent and Unmanageable, IG Says,” Secrecy News, September 4, 2012.)

But under the new Defense Security Enterprise, “Standardized security processes shall be implemented, to the maximum extent possible and with appropriate provisions for unique missions and security environments,” the DoD directive said.

The new structure is supposed to “ensure that security policies and programs are designed and managed to improve standards of performance, economy, and efficiency.”

But the directive does not explain how to proceed if “performance, economy, and efficiency” prove to be incompatible objectives.

Nor does it provide a working definition for the crucial concept of “risk management.”  This term, often contrasted with “risk avoidance,” implies an increased tolerance for risk (i.e. risk of failure).  But the practical meaning (or the limit) of this tolerance is nowhere made explicit.

The Defense Security Enterprise will be managed by “a core of highly qualified security professionals,” the DoD directive said.

publications
See all publications
Nuclear Weapons
Report
Nuclear Notebook: Russian Nuclear Weapons, 2023

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 […]

05.08.23 | 1 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
Video Indicates that Lida Air Base Might Get Russian “Nuclear Sharing” Mission in Belarus

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 […]

04.19.23 | 7 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
Was There a U.S. Nuclear Weapons Accident At a Dutch Air Base? [no, it was training, see update below]

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.

04.03.23 | 7 min read
read more
Nuclear Weapons
Blog
STRATCOM Says China Has More ICBM Launchers Than The United States – We Have Questions

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 […]

02.10.23 | 6 min read
read more