Fortunately, the hearings held in the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees last week provided needed rebuttals from respected former Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officers and other authorities. As a contribution to the Senate's deliberations, the Center offers highlights of these expert witnesses' testimony and other relevant information to help correct the record. Although we are adding new tools each year, the essential tool kits for stockpile stewardship will not be complete until sometime in the next decade . In the seven years since our last test, confidence has declined. Our nuclear weapons are highly sophisticated devices composed of thousands of components that must operate with split-second timing and with scant margin for error.
Weapons are also radioactive, and thus subject to radioactive decay and chemical decomposition.
Other components will age and will fail. All of the components must ultimately be replaced due to changes in material, changes in regulations, the disappearance of manufacturers, the changing of processes. That replacement can never be perfect. That is the essence of their deterrence. If there is uncertainty about that, the deterrent capability is weakened.