The Department of Defense’s (DOD) current nuclear weapons management presents a major risk to national security, per the latest Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
The GAO report, published on Thursday, found that the DOD has failed to resolve many oversight issues since 2021. The GAO — Congress’ auditing, evaluation, and investigative arm — also noted that problematic discontinuity in nuclear oversight structure began in the final week of the Trump administration.
“DOD has significantly modified its nuclear enterprise oversight structure multiple times since 2021, putting oversight continuity at risk and potentially affecting senior leaders’ ability to make informed decisions,” stated the GAO.
It was on January 14, 2021, six days before President Joe Biden took office, that Acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller replaced the Nuclear Deterrent Enterprise Review Group (NDERG), which had addressed issues from nuclear enterprise reviews since 2014, with another…