Office of Defense Programs (2020 Presidential transition)

Book 3 - Organization Overview
Entire 2020 DOE Transition book As of October 2020

Executing a National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) Mission. One of NNSA’s three overarching missions is to ensure the safety, security, and effectiveness of the U. S. nuclear stockpile in support of the Nation’s nuclear deterrent. This is carried out by NNSA’s Office of Defense Programs (DP/NA-10) through the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP). The SSP was established to maintain the active stockpile; execute warhead acquisition programs life extension programs (LEPs), Modification Programs (Mods) and Major Alterations (Alts)] as required to meet emerging Department of Defense (DoD) requirements; maintain and upgrade NNSA laboratory and production infrastructure; develop and maintain the underpinning science and engineering; and ensure a highly trained and skilled workforce. Since the inception of the SSP, these missions have been accomplished without requiring additional underground explosive nuclear testing through the application of specialized science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing.

The Nation has established the requirement to modernize the Nation’s nuclear deterrent. This on-going effort includes both the DoD delivery platforms and the nuclear weapons incorporated on those platforms. In order to accomplish this mission, NNSA must maintain confidence in the state of the current stockpile, deliver on required warhead acquisitions, and ensure that NNSA has the laboratory and production capabilities required to design, develop, qualify, certify, and produce the warheads required by the DoD on their established timelines.

NNSA partners with the DoD to carry out this requirement to modernize the nuclear deterrent through coordination with the Navy, the Air Force, U.S. Strategic Command , and the Nuclear Weapons Council . To execute its mission, DP integrates activities across the NNSA weapons complex (eight sites), and with other NNSA support offices including the Office of Acquisition & Program Management ; the Office of Safety, Infrastructure, and Operations ; the Office of Defense Nuclear Security ; and the Office of Information Technology and Cybersecurity .

Mission Statement

Ensuring a safe, secure, and effective nuclear stockpile through the application of science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing.

Budget

Fiscal Year	Budget
FY 2019 enacted	$11,113,080,000
FY 2020 enacted	$12,457,097,000
FY 2021 requested	$15,602,000,000

Human Resources

FY 2020 authorized full-time equivalents (FTEs): 210

History

The SSP was established to sustain the U.S. nuclear stockpile through assessing and certifying the safety, security, and effectiveness of the nuclear stockpile without reliance on additional underground explosive nuclear testing. To accomplish these goals, NNSA utilizes a suite of capabilities to include a spectrum of specialized experimental capabilities, high-performance computers, and production facilities.

Ensuring the safety, security, and effectiveness of the stockpile is accomplished through a rigorous assessment process that annually establishes the state of the currently deployed stockpile warheads and through warhead acquisitions programs when it is determined that existing stockpile systems must be changed to ensure they continue to meet DoD requirements. Warhead modernization activities include LEPs, Mods, and Alts and address issues ranging from material aging to adapting existing stockpile warheads to new DoD delivery platforms. Enhancements to warhead safety and security features are also undertaken as part of these warhead acquisition programs. Warhead acquisition programs are carried out by NNSA jointly with the DoD, and coordinated through the Nuclear Weapons Council, utilizing a NNSA-DoD acquisition process referred to as the Phase X or Phase 6.X process. With four warhead acquisitions currently underway, NNSA is executing a large variety of complex design, component development, and production work. Production activities are carried out at several NNSA sites dedicated to the manufacture of specific components required to produce a warhead and a site responsible for integrating these components to produce the warhead. To a very large extent, NNSA is its own vendor base. Commercial suppliers are utilized for some materials and in particular for commercial-off-the-shelf electronics. Safe and secure transportation of warheads and special nuclear materials between NNSA sites and between NNSA and DoD sites is accomplished through DP’s Secure Transportations Asset (STA) program.

Functions

Stockpile Management

DP directs and oversees all stockpile assessment, design, development, and production activities to ensure the U. S. nuclear weapon stockpile remains safe, secure, and effective. Stockpile management activities focus on warhead acquisition programs; annual maintenance, surveillance, and assessments; program development and planning; providing safe and secure dismantlement of nuclear weapons and components; and sustainment of needed manufacturing capabilities and capacities, including process improvements, quality assurance, and investments focused on increased efficiency of production operations.

Production Modernization

DP is responsible for maintaining and upgrading nuclear weapon production facilities and capabilities. These efforts enable the long-term viability of nuclear weapons production infrastructure by improving the infrastructure and ensuring the capacity to produce strategic materials such as tritium, high explosives, and depleted uranium, and the ability to use these materials to produce the strategic components that compose a U.S. stockpile warhead to include primaries, canned subassemblies, and non-nuclear components.

Stockpile Research, Technology, and Engineering

DP leverages leading-edge expertise in research and development to maintain the effectiveness of the nuclear weapons stockpile. These research, technology, and engineering activities utilization of a spectrum of experiments to acquire data needed to support and validate numerical modeling and simulations, and surveillance and flight tests that help affirm the effectiveness of the nuclear weapons stockpile. Subcritical and hydrodynamic experiments, along with high energy density physics and advanced computing techniques, provide a technical basis for the annual assessment of the safety and reliability of the nuclear weapons stockpile and the certification of warheads produced through the warhead acquisition programs.

Secure Transportation

DP provides for the safe, secure transport of nuclear weapons, weapon components, and special nuclear materials to meet mission requirements. The program also provides for the specialized secure transportation workforce, including the Federal agents

Recent Organization Accomplishments

Annual Assessment

The NNSA Laboratory Directors continue to certify the nuclear stockpile based on Defense Program activities. Cycle 24 was completed in FY 2020 and Cycle 25 will be completed in FY 2021.

Exascale

On May 12, 2020, the NNSA completed the Exascale Class Computer Cooling Equipment (EC3E) Project at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), 10 months ahead of schedule and $20 million under budget. The EC3E project nearly doubles the highly efficient warm-water cooling capability in LANL’s Strategic Computing Complex (SCC) and enables facility operational support for multiple exascale-class supercomputers.

Pit Production

Successfully produced development (DEV) pits. Installed equipment to produce the first war reserve pit during 2023 in PF-4. The achievements support the DoD requirement of producing no fewer than 80 pits per year during 2030.

W76-2 Delivery

The NNSA modified and delivered the W76 sea- launched ballistic missile warhead, providing the US Navy with a lower-yield capability. The 2018 NPR outlined the need for this capability to support credible and capable nuclear deterrence B61-12 LEP On August 25, 2020, Pantex completed the First Production Capability Unit (FPCU) for the B61-12, a non-nuclear explosive prototype that allows the program to exercise processes to ensure readiness for rate production. Received Phase 6.5, First Production and authorization.

W88 Alt 370

In April 2020, Pantex completed the W88 Alteration (Alt) 370 FPCU. Received Phase 6.5, First Production and authorization.

W80-4 Life Extension Program

Completed all Conceptual Design Reviews. Completed Phase II of the Integrated Baseline Review.

W87-1 Modification Program

Finalized and documented W87-1 surety architecture down-select.

Defense Programs Office of Secure Transportation

Defense Programs has continued to achieve safe and secure transport of nuclear materials and weapons.

Leadership Challenges

Supporting DoD warhead Requirements

NNSA and DoD are currently in complete schedule alignment regarding warhead acquisitions synchronized with DoD platform developments. However, sustained funding and long-term support are critical to remain in alignment. While the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile and its supporting infrastructure are currently safe, secure, effective, and reliable, they are aging. Competing interests over the past thirty years postponed weapon and infrastructure modernization programs, which directly contributed to erosion of our critical capabilities, infrastructure, and capacity to ensure the deterrent’s viability into the future. The need to modernize our nuclear weapons stockpile and recapitalize the supporting infrastructure needed to produce and maintain that stockpile has reached a tipping point. Sixty percent of NNSA’s facilities are more than forty years old and nearly forty percent are in poor condition. Assessments of facilities throughout the enterprise have identified numerous single-point failures. If not appropriately addressed, the age and condition of NNSA’s infrastructure will put NNSA’s deterrence mission, and the safety of its workforce, the public, and the environment, at risk. NNSA is undertaking a risk-informed, complicated, and time-constrained modernization and recapitalization effort. Delays in either the funding support needed to carry out this program or the execution by NNSA of this program will have impacts on the nuclear deterrent modernization program.

Covid-19

DP’s critical national security missions does not allow for temporarily cessation or operational delays. Multiple mission-critical activities cannot be performed in virtual environments or with social distancing regulations. As certain tasks must be completed on-site, DP identified priorities, made decisions based on local situations, and is continuing to take action to protect the workforce. Consequently, NNSA has not missed any DoD deliverables or any major milestones due to COVID-19. Some deliverables were delayed to ensure workforce safety while meeting highest priority DoD deliverables. Until an effective vaccine is developed DP will continue ensure workforce health and safety; continue to manage its workflow; and establish effort to complete the work deferred during the initial and current stages of COVID-19.

Critical Events and Action Items

W88 Alt 370

First Production Unit (milestone)to be achieved July 2021

B61-12 LEP

First Production Unit (milestone)to be achieved November 2021.

W80-4 Life Extension Program

Execute Phase 6.3 activities for the W80-4 LEP in support of the Air Force LRSO program.

W87-1 Modification Program

Complete W87-1 Modification Program Phase 6.2 activities, feasibility study, and design options, and enter Phase 6.2A, design definition and cost study in FY 2021.

Plutonium Pit Production

The Savannah River Plutonium Processing Facility is on schedule to complete the Conceptual Design Report and cost/schedule range in 2020 and receive CD-1 Approval from NA-1 in FY 2021 as stated in the Nuclear Weapons Council letter to Congress . FY 2021 funds will be used to continue design, procure long lead materials, and plan and prepare for demolition and equipment removal.