Should DOD Collaborate With NNSA To Modernize The Nuclear Arsenal?
Should DOD Collaborate with NNSA to Modernize the Nuclear Arsenal?
I original planned to write a paper that answered the question “Should the Department of Defense (DOD) lead the US’s nuclear arsenal modernization efforts by itself or should that responsibility be shared with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)?” I planned to compare DOD and NNSA’s budget requesting process, the actual amounts spent on nuclear modernization among the service branches, the NNSA, and the national laboratories to determine which organization is making more progress with their modernization efforts for similar amounts of money or less. I considered the efficiencies in making nuclear weapon delivery vehicles and the actual nuclear weapons packages …show more content…
In addition, since the military oversees other weapons systems, it would make sense for it to be manage nuclear weapons and their production. I wanted to argue that the technical know-how and the personnel that the NNSA brought to the table could be folded into or subsumed by DOD because DOD’s structure, funding, and adaptability would position itself to handle such a transformation and handle it well. I never considered the practicality of the change and was over-simplifying the modernization process. However, after researching the topic, NNSA and DOD should continue sharing the responsibility for modernizing the US’s nuclear stockpile. The reasons for this are: comparing the relative efficiencies of the two organizations is a not that effective, that efficiency should not be pursued at the expense of safety, and although nuclear arsenal management is not perfect, there are ways to improve it. Past experience for both DOD and NNSA is indicative of a need for collaboration between the two organizations since neither is particularly better in executing their own duties than the …show more content…
Managing a large, complex operation is difficult. The more personnel, processes, and materiel involved, the more difficult it becomes. Assessing how two different organizations with different mission objectives are performing requires looking at how well those organizations are meeting their respective objectives with the resources at their
I original planned to write a paper that answered the question “Should the Department of Defense (DOD) lead the US’s nuclear arsenal modernization efforts by itself or should that responsibility be shared with the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA)?” I planned to compare DOD and NNSA’s budget requesting process, the actual amounts spent on nuclear modernization among the service branches, the NNSA, and the national laboratories to determine which organization is making more progress with their modernization efforts for similar amounts of money or less. I considered the efficiencies in making nuclear weapon delivery vehicles and the actual nuclear weapons packages …show more content…
In addition, since the military oversees other weapons systems, it would make sense for it to be manage nuclear weapons and their production. I wanted to argue that the technical know-how and the personnel that the NNSA brought to the table could be folded into or subsumed by DOD because DOD’s structure, funding, and adaptability would position itself to handle such a transformation and handle it well. I never considered the practicality of the change and was over-simplifying the modernization process. However, after researching the topic, NNSA and DOD should continue sharing the responsibility for modernizing the US’s nuclear stockpile. The reasons for this are: comparing the relative efficiencies of the two organizations is a not that effective, that efficiency should not be pursued at the expense of safety, and although nuclear arsenal management is not perfect, there are ways to improve it. Past experience for both DOD and NNSA is indicative of a need for collaboration between the two organizations since neither is particularly better in executing their own duties than the …show more content…
Managing a large, complex operation is difficult. The more personnel, processes, and materiel involved, the more difficult it becomes. Assessing how two different organizations with different mission objectives are performing requires looking at how well those organizations are meeting their respective objectives with the resources at their