Test Readiness Program
The Test Readiness Program was a United States Government program established in 1963 to maintain the necessary technologies and infrastructure for the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, should the treaty which prohibited such testing be abrogated. == History of the program == === Events leading to the program === From 1958 to 1961, as the world powers negotiated a treaty to ban all testing of nuclear weapons except underground, there was a major push in both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to complete as much development and testing of nuclear weapons as possible before such work was prohibited.