Admiral Charles Richard, USN (Ret.), Hon. Franklin C. Miller & Robert Peters
Introduction
Nuclear weapons are having a “moment.”
Russia is threatening nuclear strikes on the West for its support to Ukraine.[1] China is the fastest growing nuclear power on the planet.[2] North Korea continues to expand and advance its nuclear and missile programs. And there is active discussion about the nature of—and what to do about—Iran’s nuclear weapon program.[3] Meanwhile, the United States, facing major industrial base issues, is modernizing its strategic deterrent at what seems to many to be a glacial pace.[4]
All of this may seem of a piece; that all the nuclear powers or nuclear aspirants are updating their arsenals. However, there are significant differences between what the United States is doing and what its potential enemies are doing. Specifically, while the United States is focused on modernizing an arsenal that is designed to deter strategic attack, America’s adversaries are quietly fielding and expanding nuclear arsenals that are not only designed to deter a strategic attack on their homelands but also are optimized for nuclear warfighting in military theaters of operation. Conversely, this is an area the United States has neglected since the Cold War ended decades ago.
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