Pentagon drifting from nuclear deterrence, report says

A task force headed by former Defense Secretary James R. Schlesinger painted a dismal picture of a Pentagon that has drifted from the mission of nuclear deterrence during the nearly two decades since the Cold War ended. Among the Pentagon's senior military and civilian leaders, the panel found "a distressing degree of inattention" to the role of nuclear weapons in deterring attacks on the United States.

Education in nuclear deterrence theory and practice at the nation's top military schools has largely ended, senior-level exercises have stopped and the number of senior officials familiar with deterrence is rapidly dwindling and will soon become an "acute" problem, Schlesinger reported.

Many senior leaders "lack the foundation for understanding nuclear deterrence, its psychological content, its political nature and its military role -- which is to avoid the use of nuclear weapons," the report concluded.

Among Schlesinger's recommendations: Send senior leaders back to school, ramp up training, consolidate responsibility for nuclear missions within the Pentagon bureaucracy and encourage the new administration to construct a new strategic framework to define the role that nuclear weapons should play.

The report also urged creation of a position of assistant secretary of Defense for deterrence to oversee the nation's nuclear weapons programs.

Gates issued a short statement Thursday saying the nation's force of intercontinental ballistic missiles, bombers and submarine-launched missiles "remains safe, secure and reliable."

"No one should doubt our capabilities or our resolve to defend U.S. and allied interests by deterring aggression," Gates said.

Schlesinger said Gates had reviewed all of his panel's recommendations, and told reporters that "so far we have gotten no push-back" on them.

Underlying the Pentagon's loss of focus on the nuclear mission, officials said, is uncertainty and confusion over how deterrence -- the prospect of certain nuclear retaliation -- works in an age when many of the potential U.S. adversaries are not states but terrorists who hold no territory and are clearly willing to engage in suicide attacks.