During a roundtable with reporters a STRATCOM representative said recent comments by Russia’s Vladimir Putin “wanted to message that he would not take first strike off the table.”
By Valerie InsinnaFor US nuclear stocks, Jill Hruby of the Department of Energy said, “this is the most demanding moment in the history of our nation’s nuclear enterprise since the Manhattan Project.”
By Theresa Hitchens“What we’re looking at here, it raises some questions, I think, about their intent,” a senior defense official told reporters.
By Valerie InsinnaAmbiguity marks China’s management of its nuclear forces and how it discusses them and uses them to deter. Unlike the US and Russia, Dean Cheng said “the Chinese believe ambiguity and doubt promote deterrence.”
By Colin Clark“It is going to take us 10 to 15 years to modernize 400 silos that already exist. And China is basically building almost that many overnight. So the speed of difference in that threat is what really concerns me most,” Gen. John Hyten, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs says.
By Colin Clark“The growing diversity of the Chinese nuclear threat and its mixing in with conventional forces creates complexity for US commanders. It is also unclear what conditions would lead to PRC nuclear use, since their arsenal is growing and creating more options,” Bryan Clark of the Hudson Institute says.
By Colin Clark
The combination of a modern long-range bomber (the H-20), and an expanded seaborne ballistic missile force, as well as this massive inflation of the land-based ICBM component, makes China’s nuclear forces look far more like their “hegemonic” counterparts in Russia and the United States than the minimal or limited deterrent presented by French or British nuclear forces.
By Dean Cheng