The United States must build new nuclear weapons to maintain its deterrent capabilities, a National Nuclear Security Administration official said Friday.

The development of new warheads to replace the U.S. Cold War stockpile is necessary to assure a nuclear deterrent for the future, John Harvey, the NNSA's policy planning staff director, told a press conference at the New America Foundation, a [post-partisan] Washington think tank. The NNSA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Energy.

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...

For the complete article, please visit the United Press International website.

For more information on this event, please click here.