The 2001 Nuclear Posture Review envisioned that the New Triad would include the majority of current and planned conventional strike capabilities, as well as a family of unique global strike capabilities, to address the new security risks faced by the United States. Current global strike assets could include long-range precision attacks delivered from aircraft or naval platforms, such as B-52H bombers equipped with conventional air-launched cruise missiles and surface ships and submarines outfitted with sea-based Tomahawk land attack missiles. Use of nonkinetic capabilities, such as information operations, may also be needed to defeat an adversary’s capability to deny U.S. forces access to areas or to achieve the surprise necessary to defeat high-value/high-payoff targets such as weapons of mass destruction, leadership, or command and control capabilities in more difficult environments. Successful conduct of global strike operations also is likely to require several enabling capabilities such as intelligence collection and dissemination, surveillance and reconnaissance, command and control, communications, and battlefield damage assessment to support all aspects of the planning and conduct of missions. Most of the platforms, weapons, nonkinetic assets and supporting command, control, communications, and computers and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities used to support the global strike mission are not unique to global strike. These assets also provide general purpose capabilities used to support a variety of other missions conducted by the geographic combatant commands. However, DOD is studying several new capabilities to address shortfalls in prompt and global range conventional capabilities. Many DOD organizations, including the Joint Staff, military services, combatant commands, and defense agencies, have responsibilities for developing and implementing the global strike concept, identifying and acquiring needed capabilities, and conducting global strike missions. Within the Office of the Secretary of Defense, two organizations have key responsibilities for overseeing and managing global strike related activities: The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy is responsible for developing the policy and guidance for global strike. The office is also responsible for preparing DOD’s annual report to Congress on global strike, which includes information on the purpose, mission, assets, potential target, desired capabilities, and conditions for execution. The Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics is responsible for providing oversight for the development and fielding of global strike capabilities. The office also has responsibilities for various DOD initiatives to improve the department’s acquisition processes and management of investments. Additionally, the Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation in the Office of the Secretary of Defense is responsible for assembling and distributing the FYDP, which is an automated database that DOD uses to report the estimated projected resources and proposed appropriations to support DOD programs, projects, and activities, including those related to global strike capabilities. The FYDP includes cost estimates for the fiscal year reflected in the current budget request and at least 4 subsequent years. The Joint Staff is responsible for providing oversight of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System process to identify improvements to existing capabilities and guide development of new capabilities from a joint perspective that recognizes the need for trade-off analysis. The various global strike analyses conducted as part of this process are intended to result in a set of potential solutions, including additional resources or changes to doctrine and training designed to correct capability shortcomings. The Joint Staff, along with the Commander of the U.S. Joint Forces Command, have responsibilities for overseeing development of joint doctrine and managing and providing support for joint exercises of the combatant commands. Additionally, the military services and defense agencies also have important roles in identifying and acquiring potential technologies and weapons systems development programs that could provide global strike capabilities. The U.S. Strategic Command has a significant role in implementing the global strike concept and supporting global strike operations. For its global strike mission, the command is responsible for providing integrated planning and command and control support to deliver rapid, extended range, and precision kinetic and nonkinetic effects in support of theater and national objectives, and in some situations, executing command and control of selected global strike missions. The command also advocates for global strike capabilities on behalf of the combatant commands, services, and defense agencies through such means as preparing and reviewing global-strike-related documentation and analyzing needed capabilities. The command supports other combatant commands during day-to-day operations by integrating their capabilities for potential global strike missions through training, exercises, and planning activities. During a crisis, the command, in close coordination with other combatant commands, would develop plans and courses of action for executing global strike missions on very tight timelines for the Secretary of Defense or the President. The command also has responsibilities for other mission areas that support global strike, including oversight of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and global command and control; DOD information operations; space operations; and integrating and synchronizing DOD’s efforts in combating weapons of mass destruction. DOD has taken a number of steps to implement its global strike concept and has generally assigned responsibilities for the planning, execution, and support of global strike operations. However, key stakeholders, particularly the geographic combatant commanders, have different interpretations of the scope, range, and potential use of capabilities needed to implement global strike and under what conditions global strike would be used in U.S. military operations. Several factors affect understanding and communication of the global strike concept among key stakeholders, including the extent to which DOD has (1) defined global strike, (2) incorporated global strike into joint doctrine, (3) conducted outreach and communication activities with key stakeholders, and (4) involved stakeholders in joint exercises and other training involving global strike. Without a complete and clearly articulated concept that is well communicated and practiced with key stakeholders, DOD could encounter difficulties in fully implementing its concept and building the necessary relationships for carrying out global strike operations. DOD has taken a number of steps to implement its global strike concept since completing its 2001 Nuclear Posture Review, which provided the rationale for global strike. Specifically, the U.S. Strategic Command has played a major role in DOD’s implementation of global strike by helping to shape the concept, developing new processes and procedures, and providing inputs in identifying and developing new capabilities. Since issuing its 2001 Nuclear Posture Review, DOD has conducted several analyses to evaluate desired capabilities and identify capability gaps. In January 2005, DOD completed the Global Strike Joint Integrating Concept, which describes how a global strike joint task force would operate, the time frame and environment in which it must operate, its required capabilities, and its defining physical and operating characteristics. The concept was used as input for analyses conducted under the Joint Staff’s Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System requirements process to identify the desired capabilities and shortfalls in current global strike capabilities. The first two of the three analyses, the functional area analysis and functional needs analysis, were completed in 2005. The functional area analysis synthesized existing guidance to specify the military problem to be studied. The analysis identified the specific military tasks the force is expected to perform, the conditions under which these tasks are to be performed, and the required standards of performance. The functional needs analysis examined that problem; assessed how well DOD can address the problem given its current program; identified capability gaps and shortfalls, risk areas, and redundancies; and identified the capabilities DOD should develop. The last of the analyses, Global Strike Raid Evaluation of Alternatives, will make recommendations on potential approaches to overcome capability gaps by way of doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership, personnel, and facilities actions. The Joint Staff plans to complete this analysis in May 2008. DOD also has several similar analytical efforts underway or completed, such as the Air Force-led Prompt Global Strike Analysis of Alternatives, to identify potential weapons systems solutions for global strike. Moreover, the U.S. Strategic Command has been implementing its assigned planning and command and control support responsibilities for the global strike mission. In addition to the support its headquarters provides for DOD efforts to implement and develop global strike capabilities, the command established a joint functional component command for global strike and integration to provide day-to-day management for its global strike mission. The command has also initiated several activities including improving processes and procedures for command and control, communications, and decision making and the management of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, and incorporating global strike operations into its concept plan. For example, development of adaptive planning systems such as the theater integrated planning subsystem and the integrated strategic planning and analysis network will allow Strategic Command planners to collaborate with and support the geographic combatant commands. While key stakeholders have been involved in various global strike development efforts, global strike is interpreted differently among combatant command and service officials, who have significant roles and responsibilities in planning, coordinating, and executing global strike operations. DOD, Joint Staff, combatant command, and service officials we spoke with generally believe that global strike is a broad and unbounded concept that could include a wide range of forces and other capabilities and involve different scenarios. As a result, the concept can be difficult to understand and creates different interpretations among stakeholders. For example, officials from the services offered a range of different interpretations of global strike operations: At a roundtable discussion we held with a number of officials at the U.S. Pacific Air Force Command, which supports the U.S. Pacific Command, the consensus reached was that global strike was a mission associated with the U.S. Strategic Command and the strikes conducted would originate from the continental United States. Some of the officials said that global strike was a special capability reserved only for the President, Secretary of Defense, and a Joint Force Commander. U.S. Pacific Fleet headquarters representatives told us that global strike implied that the capability would originate from outside the geographic command’s region and would not include maritime-based targets.