A Defense Science Board task force concluded the US must create a national strategy and implementation plan that unifies diverse nuclear-related agencies and departments, revamps monitoring to identify proliferators early, expands cooperation agreements, better utilizes open and commercial source reporting, and invests in and modernizes core capabilities. The 100-plus page report, released last month, examined both the US monitoring system and proposed improvements to existing capabilities. It included a wide-ranging assessment and analysis of US counter-proliferation monitoring and verification technologies across the Defense Department, intelligence community, and other agencies. “Closing the nation’s global nuclear monitoring gaps should be a national priority. It will require, however, a level of commitment and sustainment we don’t normally do well without a crisis,” wrote task force co-chairs Miriam John and Donald Kerr in a memo to the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. “However, lessons from the past tell us that progress can be made with a sustained effort in which experienced and competent professionals can devote their careers to the quest and pass on their wisdom to successive generations.” (Full report; caution, large-sized file.)
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
