The controversial Reliable Replacement Warhead, or RRW, is cheap and secure, Harvey said, and despite congressional opposition remains "the only way to sustain our nuclear capacity."

"The idea is to provide the same military capabilities as the one it replaces," he said, "not to come out with whole new generations of nuclear weapons."

The RRW is part of the post-Cold War program Complex 2030 program that aims to reduce U.S. nuclear warheads to the lowest possible number consistent with national security. Some 2,000 -- one-fifth of Cold War levels -- would be deployed, Harvey said.

That number is based more on judgment than analysis, he said, because during the Cold War U.S. experts knew how many warheads were needed to strike back after an attack. "Now we can no longer predict where nuclear threats will come from," he said.

Most U.S. nuclear warheads were built in the 1970s and 1980s and are being retained longer than planned, according to a 2007 Congressional Research Service report. A life extension program replaces components, and "the RRW program will simply accomplish that same goals," Harvey said. Rebuilding components as closely as possible to the original specifications means "the warhead can do what it is designed for without testing," he said.

The United States carried out its last nuclear test in 1992 and adopted the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty in 1996. Without the ability to test, scientists rely more on bigger and faster computers and improved computer models to assess changes to weapons in the stockpile.

Harvey's comments came only days after the Appropriations Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives cut all of the $88.8 billion President George W. Bush requested for the RRW and Complex 2030 program. The appropriators called the plans "poorly thought out" and "premature." If the U.S. Senate agrees with that assessment, scientists at the two nuclear design laboratories at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Los Alamos would cease working this fall.

Harvey, who said he spoke in a private capacity, advises the NNSA administrator on policy and program decisions involving U.S. nuclear weapons. From March 1995 to January 2001, he served as deputy assistant secretary of Defense for nuclear forces and missile defense policy.

Steven Monblatt, co-executive director of the British-American Security Information Council, an independent research organization, told the press conference that the RRW program looked to some like a build-up of nuclear weapons by the United States.

Protests fearing a new nuclear arms race, Harvey said, were "noises from NGO's, not international governments."

"Nuclear weapons are still an important part of our national security," Harvey said. "They prevent large-scale wars of aggression, persuade rogue states not to sell their warheads to terrorists and contribute to the safety of our allies." He cited fellow NATO member and Iran's neighbor Turkey as an example.

However, Harvey acknowledged that the U.S. government's public diplomacy about the RRW and Complex 2030 needed to improve, because he was, he said, "aware of the incorrect perception in the international community."

Harvey said the RRW would secure U.S. deterrent needs as long as required. "The long-term exploration is an impetus for RRW," he said.

Unlike Britain, the United States should not rely on a single design warhead, Harvey said. "The United States has a different perspective about its role in the world and a different responsibility to a broader group of allies," he said. Four different nuclear weapons systems are being designed at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory.

Developing the RRW was more than "just wargaming," Harvey said. "We are learning more today then when we were testing," he said.

Harvey said the U.S. government needed to explore a long-term, post-Cold War and post-9/11 strategy. He said a new government document should be drafted to discuss the role of nuclear weapons. "Our new president must have something clever to say about them when we celebrate the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 2009," he said.

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