10 U.S.C. § 492 — Biennial assessment and report on the delivery platforms for nuclear weapons and the nuclear command and control system

(a) Biennial Assessments. (1) In every even-numbered year, each covered official must assess the safety, security, reliability, sustainability, performance, military effectiveness, and ability to meet operational-availability requirements of the systems in paragraph (2) for which that official is responsible. (2) The systems are— (A) each type of nuclear-weapons delivery platform; and (B) the nuclear command and control system. (b) Biennial Report. (1) By December 1 of every even-numbered year, each covered official must send the Secretary of Defense and the Nuclear Weapons Council established by section 179 of this title a report on the subsection (a) assessments. (2) The report must include— (A) the assessment results; (B) identification and discussion of capability gaps or shortfalls concerning the systems assessed under subsection (a)(2); (C) identification and discussion of risks concerning the ability to meet mission or capability requirements; (D) if the Commander of the United States Strategic Command made the assessment and identified a deficiency in a nuclear-weapons delivery platform, a discussion of the relative merits of another delivery-platform type or compensating measure that would perform that platform’s mission; and (E) identification and discussion of anything that adversely affects the covered official’s ability to determine accurately the matters covered by the assessment. (c) Report to President and Congress. (1) By March 1 of each year after a year in which a subsection (b) report was submitted, the Secretary of Defense must send the President a report containing— (A) each subsection (b) report submitted during the previous year, in the form originally submitted to the Secretary; (B) comments the Secretary considers appropriate about each report; (C) conclusions the Secretary considers appropriate about the safety, security, reliability, sustainability, performance, or military effectiveness of the systems in subsection (a)(2); and (D) any other information the Secretary considers appropriate. (2) By March 15 of each year in which a paragraph (1) report is submitted, the President must send the congressional defense committees the report, including comments the President considers appropriate. (3) A report under this subsection may be classified if the Secretary of Defense decides that classification is necessary. (d) Covered Official Defined. “Covered official” means— (1) the Commander of the United States Strategic Command; (2) the Director of the Navy’s Strategic Systems Program; (3) the Commander of the Air Force’s Global Strike Command; and (4) the Commander of the United States Air Forces in Europe. The section does not otherwise define the quoted term “covered official.”