USAF General Kevin Chilton, head of U.S. Strategic Command, argues that the current U.S. nuclear arsenal is in drastic need of a technological upgrade to ensure its reliability as the majority of the arsenal was built using technology from the 1950s.

The Pentagon risks running out of scientists to operate and upgrade the nation's arsenal of intercontinental nuclear and conventional missiles, according to a report released this week by the Defense Science Board.

[ Full Report: "Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Future Strategic Strike Skills"," March 2006 (1.9 MB PDF)

The United States should immediately begin efforts to produce a new "family" of nuclear weapons to replace the current U.S. arsenal, according to an Energy Department-commissioned task force report.

A U.S. debate over stockpile stewardship is opening the "back door for a slew of nuclear weapons programs—mini nukes, bunker-busters, and electromagnetic-pulse enhancers."

Linton F. Brooks, the director of the U.S. nuclear weapons programs, has proposed that Congress approve funds to study the feasibility of building a new, more reliable nuclear warhead that could be deployed without nuclear testing in less than 10 years.

The U.S. government is preparing to spend more than $2 billion on a routine 10-year overhaul to extend the life of the aging warheads. At the same time, some weapons scientists say the warheads have a fundamental design flaw that could cause them to explode with far less force than intended.

Worried that the nation's aging nuclear arsenal is increasingly fragile, American scientists have begun designing a new generation of nuclear arms meant to be sturdier and more reliable and to have longer lives. Critics counter that the effort could needlessly resuscitate the complex of factories and laboratories that make nuclear weapons and could possibly ignite a new arms race.

The U.S. may make more than 450 plutonium warhead triggers a year under a plan to resume production of the devices The Department of Energy announced plans a year ago for a pit manufacturing plant, saying new triggers are needed to maintain the safety, security, and reliability of the current and future US nuclear arsenal.

Los Alamos National Laboratory has created the first new plutonium pit -- the deadly heart of a nuclear warhead -- in 14 years. It's the opening trickle in what is scheduled to eventually become a torrent of new nuclear cores. For the next four years, Los Alamos will make about a half-dozen pits per year. After that, capacity will ramp up to 10 pits per year -- and then to as many as 500 new pits annually, as the new U.S. Modern Pit Facility comes online in 2018.

The United States has regained the capability to make nuclear weapons for the first time in 14 years and has restarted production of plutonium parts for bombs.