A New Nuclear Age

Some of the technology that will soon be employed in implementing the Nuclear Posture Review's mandates is not new. One system, designed to allow the transmission of encoded "emergency actions messages," employs new Windows-like software and "open architecture networking." It initially came into use in August 2001, and proved so valuable on and after Sept. 11 that the Air Force notified the defense industry last month that it is looking at procuring an additional 200 or more of the systems in the future.

Sept. 11 also served as the spark for communications network improvements at the presidential level. The White House has initiated a highly classified "Pioneer" project to resolve deficiencies in presidential communications revealed after the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks. "The events of Sept. 11, 2001, illustrate the need to improve our national command and control architecture," Adm. James O. Ellis Jr., commander of Strategic Command, told Congress in April. Military planners and government agencies, he added, were working to craft a new national system to rectify the problems.

The military is clearly moving quickly to implement the Nuclear Posture Review's recommendations. Some of the upgrades are no-brainers: If we are going to possess nuclear weapons, the need to maintain civilian communications with nuclear forces even in the most catastrophic circumstances is indisputable. The new technologies will enable greater mobility and faster decision making. Let's hope that in doing so, they don't also increase the likelihood that the U.S. will initiate a nuclear war.