Air Force to explore long-term nuclear enterprise ideas at new summit

Air Force Global Strike Command will host its inaugural nuclear deterrence operations innovation summit this summer to find ways to advance the service's national leadership command capabilities and nuclear command, control and communications enterprise in 2035 and beyond, according to a Federal Business Opportunities notice posted last week.

“The Air Force NC3 weapon system consists of various components operated as stand-alone systems and/or embedded within terrestrial, airborne, and space-borne systems,” the March 20 announcement states. “It must provide extremely robust, resilient, highly secure, highly reliable, rapid, trusted, and unambiguous connectivity in both the benign operational environment as well as the highly contested warfighting environment which is characterized by possible chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, electronic warfare, advanced weapons and offensive cyber threats.”

The event is tentatively scheduled for July 25 to 27 at Barksdale Air Force Base, LA.

Stakeholders are invited to submit white papers describing how their program or technology will help the Air Force starting in 2035, including key milestones and other technologies needed to make the proposal possible. White papers are due April 27.

The time frame under consideration will come less than a decade after the Air Force and Navy begin to replace the nuclear arsenal in the 2020s, an initiative expected to last about 50 years. The white papers could indicate to the Pentagon how best to control those networked assets and build on their capabilities.

Air Force Chief Scientist Greg Zacharias and leaders from U.S. Strategic Command, the Navy, Air Force headquarters, Global Strike Command, Air Force Space Command, Air Combat Command, Air Mobility Command, Air Education and Training Command, Air Force Materiel Command, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, the Defense Information Systems Agency, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Missile Defense Agency will attend the summit, the notice states.