Improve the ability to use the nuclear triad's upload capacity in a crisis

Partially done

Printed page 124 4. Department of Defense

“Improve the ability of the U.S. to utilize the triad's upload capacity in case of a crisis.”

What has happened

Dec 18, 2025 Partially done
The FY2026 NDAA protects the infrastructure upload depends on. Sec. 1632 adds 10 U.S.C. 9062(n), requiring the deployed ICBM force to be dispersed among not fewer than 150 launch facilities at each of F.E. Warren, Malmstrom and Minot - not fewer than 450 in total - and bars spending on any reduction in ICBM responsiveness, alert level or numbers. Sec. 3111 recodifies the nuclear manufacturing infrastructure program as 10 U.S.C. 6122, whose objectives include supplying "sufficient tritium in support of nuclear weapons to ensure an upload hedge in the event circumstances require". The silos and the tritium are preserved; nothing in either Act improves the mechanics of executing an upload in a crisis.
- National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2026 (P.L. 119-60), secs. 1632 and 3111 - ICBM force levels and launch facilities, and the nuclear manufacturing infrastructure programme (10 U.S.C. 6122)
  Primary Congress Dec 18, 2025
Jul 4, 2025 Partially done
Two lines in section 20008(a) of the reconciliation act (P.L. 119-21) go directly to upload capacity: $62,000,000 to convert Ohio-class submarine tubes to accept additional missiles, not to be obligated before 2026-03-01, and $100,000,000 for capability enhancements to intercontinental ballistic missile reentry vehicles - the two places where the triad's uploadable capacity physically sits.
- P.L. 119-21 sec. 20008(a)(4) and (8) - ICBM reentry vehicle enhancements and Ohio-class tube conversion
  Primary Congress Jul 4, 2025

Research log

What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence

Research notes

“Upload” as a search term is mostly noise (the enacted texts use it about receipts and documents); the hit that matters is the tritium upload-hedge clause at 10 U.S.C. 6122(a)(1)(E), which is a recodification of a pre-window requirement rather than a new one. Recorded so the next pass does not read the recodification as new action.

The New START central limits, which are what constrained upload, lapsed on 2026-02-05 (see #260). That removes a treaty constraint rather than improving a capability, so it is not counted as an event here.

Action: expand
Object: nuclear triad upload capacity
ID: 257