Congressional Research Service Reports - 47 Matching Results
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- Air Force Aerial Refueling
- Aerial refueling aircraft are key to military air operations. The U.S. tanker fleet is numerous and effective, but old. Modernizing or replacing the current fleet of tankers presents the Department of Defense (DOD) with difficult choices in terms of desired capabilities, force structure, and budget. The Air Force’s proposal to lease 100 Boeing 767 aircraft to replace it’s KC-135E fleet is controversial.
- Missile Survey: Ballistic and Cruise Missiles of Foreign Countries
- No Description Available.
- Iran's Ballistic Missile Capabilities
- No Description Available.
- Iran's Nuclear Program: Recent Developments
- No Description Available.
- Missile Defense: The Current Debate
- This report provides background information on the Bush Administration's proposed approach toward the development and deployment of missile defense. It also discusses key related issues.
- U.S. Nuclear Weapons: Changes in Policy and Force Structure
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Warhead "Pit" Production: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- North Korea's Nuclear Weapons: How Soon an Arsenal?
- No Description Available.
- Project BioShield
- No Description Available.
- U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients, 1996-2003
- No Description Available.
- Navy Ship Procurement Rate and the Planned Size of the Navy: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Weapon Initiatives: Low-Yield R&D, Advanced Concepts, Earth Penetrators, Test Readiness
- No Description Available.
- Navy-Marine Corps Amphibious and Maritime Prepositioning Ship Programs: Background and Oversight Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Small-scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons
- No Description Available.
- Ricin: Technical Background and Potential Role in Terrorism
- No Description Available.
- Border Security and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
- The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to improve border security is a technique that has garnered congressional attention. This report examines the strengths and limitations of deploying UAVs along the borders and related issues for Congress. This report is not intended to provide in-depth information regarding technical or military capabilities of UAVs, but to discuss their application at the border.
- Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border Surveillance
- This report examines the strengths and limitations of deploying UAVs along the borders and related issues for Congress.
- Navy Trident Submarine Conversion (SSGN) Program: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Navy Littoral Combat Ship (LCS): Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Navy-Marine Corps Amphibious and Maritime Prepositioning Ship Programs: Background and Oversight Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Small-Scale Terrorist Attacks Using Chemical and Biological Agents: An Assessment Framework and Preliminary Comparisons
- No Description Available.
- Homeland Security: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and Border Surveillance
- The use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to improve border security is a technique that has garnered congressional attention. This report examines the strengths and limitations of deploying UAVs along the borders and related issues for Congress.
- Navy Attack Submarine Force-Level Goal and Procurement Rate: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- "Bunker Busters": Sources of Confusion in the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Debate
- The Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator (RNEP), often called a “bunker buster,” is at present the subject of a cost and feasibility study to determine if either of two nuclear bombs, the B61 and the B83, could be modified, mainly by adding a heavy, pointed case, so as to be able to penetrate perhaps 10 meters into earth or rock. This penetration would increase the weapon’s ability, by a factor of 20 to 50, to destroy hardened and deeply buried facilities. The RNEP debate has received much attention and spawned much confusion. This report examines sources of confusion in this debate.
- Air Force FB-22 Bomber Concept
- The Air Force has expressed interest in developing a bomber variant of the F/A-22 Raptor to “bridge the gap” between today’s bombers and a follow-on bomber in 2037. Questions exist regarding the FB-22’s feasibility, cost, and combat potential.
- Navy CVN-21 Aircraft Carrier Program: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Navy Attack Submarine Force-Level Goal and Procurement Rate: Background and Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Weapons: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
- No Description Available.
- Nuclear Weapons: Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
- No Description Available.
- Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons
- No Description Available.
- Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1996-2003
- This report is prepared annually to provide unclassified quantitative data on conventional arms transfers to developing nations by the United States and foreign countries for the preceding eight calendar years. Some general data are provided on worldwide conventional arms transfers, but the principal focus is the level of arms transfers by major weapons suppliers to nations in the developing world. The data in the report illustrate how global patterns of conventional arms transfers have changed in the post-Cold War and post-Persian Gulf War years.
- Navy Ship Acquisition in the FY2005 Budget: Oversight Issues for Congress
- No Description Available.
- Cruise Missile Defense
- Congress has expressed interest in cruise missile defense for years. Cruise missiles (CMs) are essentially unmanned attack aircraft — vehicles composed of an airframe, propulsion system, guidance system, and weapons payload. The Department of Defense is pursuing several initiatives that seek to improve capabilities against an unpredictable cruise missile threat. These initiatives compete for funding and congressional attention.
- Semiautomatic Assault Weapons Ban
- This report focuses on the use and interpretation of firearms trace data produced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).
- Disarming Libya: Weapons of Mass Destruction
- On December 19, 2003, Libya announced it would dismantle its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and ballistic missile programs. Since then, U.S., British, and international officials have inspected and removed or destroyed key components of those programs, and Libya has provided valuable information, particularly about foreign suppliers. Libya’s WMD disarmament is a critical step towards reintegration into the world community, and a necessary but probably not sufficient prerequisite for lifting U.S. sanctions.
- Project BioShield: Legislative History and Side-by-Side Comparison of H.R. 2122, S. 15, and S. 1504
- Few effective countermeasures currently exist to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear terror agents. In early 2003, the Bush administration proposed Project BioShield to stimulate the development of such countermeasures and to procure them for the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS). Congress considered three bills that incorporated much of the administration’s proposal: S. 15 (Gregg), H.R. 2122 (Tauzin), and S. 1504 (Gregg). H.R. 2122 passed the House on July 16, 2003. S. 15 passed the Senate on May 25, 2004, in an amended form similar to H.R. 2122. This version of S. 15 passed the House on July 14, 2004. President Bush signed S. 15 into law as the Project BioShield Act of 2004 (P.L. 108-276) on July 21, 2004.
- Tactical Aircraft Modernization: Issues for Congress
- This Issue Brief examines DOD’s four largest tactical aircraft modernization programs. The background section provides a brief description of each program, and a discussion of how tactical aircraft fit into the military air operations: the missions they typically perform and how they contrast to longer-range combat aircraft.
- Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan, FY2005-FY2009
- No Description Available.
- Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan, FY2005-FY2009
- No Description Available.
- Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan, FY2005-FY2009
- No Description Available.
- Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Budget Request and Plan, FY2005-FY2009
- No Description Available.
- Terrorism: Background on Chemical, Biological, and Toxin Weapons and Options for Lessening Their Impact
- No Description Available.
- Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) Programs: Issues for Congress
- This report discusses congressional concerns regarding intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) programs' costs, management, and efficacy and how to best resolve the issues within ISR programs.
- Weapons of Mass Destruction: Trade Between North Korea and Pakistan
- In October 2002, the United States confronted North Korea about its alleged clandestine uranium enrichment program. Soon after, the Agreed Framework collapsed, North Korea expelled international inspectors, and withdrew from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT). U.S. intelligence officials claimed Pakistan was a key supplier of uranium enrichment technology to North Korea, and some media reports suggested that Pakistan had exchanged centrifuge enrichment technology for North Korean help in developing longer range missiles.
- China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues
- Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.
- China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues
- Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.
- China and Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction and Missiles: Policy Issues
- Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.