2022 Nuclear Posture Review: Selected Programmatic Issues

The unclassified 2022 Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), a legislatively mandated document (10 U.S.C., Ch. 24), describes the Biden Administration’s plans to continue to modernize U.S. nuclear forces and infrastructure. That modernization process began under the Obama and Trump Administrations.

The NPR reaffirms the continued deployment of nuclear warheads deliverable by a triad of aircraft and land- and submarine-based missiles. Proposed policy changes include the cancelation of the nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile (SLCM-N) and the retirement of the B83-1 gravity bomb. The NPR also outlines the Administration’s plans for revitalizing the U.S. nuclear weapons complex and delivery systems industrial base.