Gates's nuclear brief

IN A SPEECH before a think tank Tuesday, Defense Secretary Robert Gates suggested that upgrading America's nuclear weapons is a good way to discourage proliferation around the globe. His argument before the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace was provocative - but also persuasive. Gates's key recommendations for securing, modernizing, and reducing the US nuclear stockpile should be heeded by Congress and by the next president.

Gates hopes to win congressional funding to design and build nuclear weapons that will be safer and more reliable than the aging devices in the current arsenal. Gates insists that the proposed Reliable Replacement Warhead program is not a disguised effort to build new types of weapons that are more likely to be used. "Let me be clear," he said. "The program we propose is not about new nuclear capabilities - suitcase bombs or bunker busters or tactical nukes."

Modernized nuclear weapons are crucial to a broader objective: Gates wants the United States and Russia to reduce their strategic nuclear weapons substantially, but to do so without having to test replacement weapons. The replacement warhead program would employ designers and technicians to "field a safer, more secure warhead," he said. "New designs build in enhanced safety features and high reliability that can be assured without actual underground testing."

Being able to create reliable new warheads without having to test them is crucial for the cause of nonproliferation. So it was particularly heartening that Gates also said the United States "probably should" sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty. This was an implicit criticism of President Bush's opposition to the test ban. And it is sound advice for the next president.