David Beck, deputy administrator for Defense Programs at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), sent a memo Feb. 11 outlining “transformation objectives” for nuclear weapons at the agency.

The memo was sent to the DOE’s semi-autonomous agency’s laboratories, contractors and senior officials. It lists objectives considered “achievable” by the end of calendar year 2028, and Beck wants the labs, plants and sites to write implementation plans by March 7 for each objective.

A key objective is “advancing deterrence science,” which requires the enterprise to “execute the president’s directive with respect to the testing of the U.S. nuclear deterrent.”

“The President is the Commander in Chief, and decisions regarding testing are made by him,” an NNSA spokesperson told Exchange Monitor in a Thursday morning email. “NNSA provides technical expertise and executes the President’s decisions.”

Another objective required the agency to revitalize production capacity and complete modifications at Los Alamos National Laboratory’s Plutonium Facility 4, particularly to “enable production of 100 pits and achieve a sustained production rate of at least 60 pits per year and begin production.” NNSA did not specify what was met by “begin production.” Thom Mason, director of Los Alamos, said last month the lab was “now ahead of schedule” to get 30 pits per year by 2028, and that Los Alamos “met or exceeded” all production objectives.

Mason also said last month the exact number of pits produced is classified. 

Other objectives include the following:

• Grow the enterprise’s workforce of engineers, scientists, technicians and program managers to at least 10% above “Program of Record demand” while reducing indirect staffing through artificial intelligence (AI) tools and digital automation.
• Deliver modernized nuclear weapons to meet Pentagon requirements “ahead of NNSA’s current plans.”
• Develop and advance modeling, simulation and AI capabilities “to reduce end-to-end nuclear weapon design timelines by at least 30%.”
• Achieve an overall enterprise-wide transformation.

“Strategic deterrence is as critical to U.S. national security today as it has been at any point in history,” Beck said. “Our adversaries are advancing their capabilities in key nuclear domains, eroding traditional sources of the United States’ strategic advantage. To ensure the continued supremacy of America’s deterrence posture, we must urgently accelerate the modernization of the nuclear weapons stockpile and the revitalization of its associated facilities and infrastructure.”