arguments against nuclear weapons
Fred Kaplan, hailed by The New York Times as “a rare combination of defense intellectual and pugnacious reporter,” takes us into the White House Situation Room, the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s “Tank” in the Pentagon, and the vast ... Coming less than a year after the first President Bush signed a unilateral moratorium on nuclear testing, the amendment also helped to support the case for the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, or CTBT, which prohibited those systems that critics worried would be most difficult to detect if they were tested in violation of the treaty. There are two primary ways a new system could do so. The subsequent outbreak of war in Korea in June 1950 justified to many a substantial increase in defense spending. It provides a major terror threat. 4. An increased number of nuclear weapons means a greater risk of them being stolen, lost or even worse, detonated. . For example, the Kremlin has repeatedly threatened to respond to NATO’s deployment of the B61-12. It must be supposed that, in future military use, the atom bomb will not always be a total surprise. This ambiguity can sometimes be used to conceal the extremity of certain positions for nuclear weapons or can inadvertently obfuscate moderate arguments. Prior to that, he worked briefly on nuclear elimination contingencies at the RAND Corporation. Matthew Bodner, “Kremlin Threatens Response to U.S. Nuclear Bomb Deployment in Germany,”, Austin Long and Brendan Rittenhouse Green, “Stalking the Secure Second Strike: Intelligence, Counterforce, and Nuclear Strategy,”. If military assets were limited to conventional weapons, nations would experience fewer inhibitions against armed conflict. Both factors would raise the likelihood that the relatively restrained modernization plans erupt into a highly unstable arms race. Although this scenario captured a large proportion of the discussion about European deterrence, it is worth considering how much weight it should be accorded in deliberations about force structure and modernization. Serious nuclear accidents are very rare, and not particularly dangerous. Nations in possession of nuclear weapons wish to maintain them for security purposes. Only about 14,000,000 people of the Soviet Union live in cities of a half million or more population. . Found insideThis book will be widely read and discussed by everyone who cares about war, peace, foreign policy, and security in the twenty-first century. “Magisterial in its sweep, research, and erudition, yet written in a direct, unstuffy style, ... . In recent years, each has been recommended for development.74, A related proposal recommends new forward deployments of existing or new weapons.75 In recent years, observers have called for basing nuclear systems in Guam and South Korea or resuscitating the small inventory of U.S. tactical weapons deployed to Europe through NATO sharing agreements either by deploying new systems or by improving the readiness and survivability of those weapons and the dual-capable aircraft, or DCA, that carry them.76 A handful of voices have called for returning the nuclear strike mission to the carrier fleet. There are severe risks in leading toward a world with increased reliance on nuclear weapons. The amendment is also known as the PLYWD legislation, for Precision Low-Yield Weapon Design. Nine countries have or are believed to have nuclear arsenals, according to the Arms Control Association: the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, Pakistan, India, China and North Korea. The United States developed and used the first nuclear weapons in 1945,... Where should the United States draw the line as it embarks on a program to replace nearly every bomb, missile, submarine, and warhead in its arsenal? Lastly, Russia clearly has a greater interest in provoking an arms race in intermediate-range systems—as it has done by violating the INF Treaty—and in nonstrategic weapons, given its proximity to potential adversaries and its large arsenal of these systems.115 In order to deploy these systems, the United States would have to pay the extra cost of having to consult with reticent allies and, when it did, emplacements of U.S. missiles in Europe would be more susceptible to preemptive attack than would launchers in Russian territory. For four years after the U.S. dropped atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki to end World War II, America held a monopoly on the production of atomic weapons. In the scenario, Russian theater nuclear forces have been alerted and, interspersed with conventional ground attack units, are deploying to firing positions near NATO’s Baltic borders and in Kaliningrad. Registered office: Venture House, Cross Street, Arnold, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, NG5 7PJ. Found insideWritten in an accessible and authoritative voice, The Button reveals the shocking tales and sobering facts of nuclear executive authority throughout the atomic age, delivering a powerful condemnation against ever leaving explosive power ... This is easy arithmetic, but it is not correct. For example, in early 2016, the Defense Science Board, a committee of technical civilian advisors to Defense Department senior leadership, recommended steps to hedge against future uncertainties. Despite sustained criticism that the Obama administration was not living up to its side of the bargain, it was the Republican-controlled Congress that declined to fully meet the administration’s requests for modernization funding. There is ample evidence that this position is becoming orthodoxy within the Republican Party.51 The first suggestions for new nuclear weapons policies occurred prior to the 2016 presidential election. Instead, they emphasized the need to win the conventional conflict on the ground and in the air, even given the uncertainty about whether this would be possible. Russia’s invasion of Crimea, China’s expanding territorial claims in the South China Sea, and major nuclear modernization programs in nearly every nuclear power have convinced many to return to nuclear weapons as an indispensable solution to security challenges. I firmly believe that the only way to bring an end to the needlessly harmful effects that such weapons carry is a ban on both their use and possession or at least a reduction in countries nuclear arsenal and in this essay I will be explaining why. Jesus often spoke of the need for peace, as did Paul in many of his New Testament letters. " The book includes a history of attempts to eliminate nuclear weapons, together with a summary of the arguments for and against; an analysis of whether nuclear weapons prevented war in Europe between 1945 and 1991; and a worldwide survey ... Both within U.S. debates over defense budgets and in foreign capitals concerned with the nuclear balance, the deliberate decision to refrain from deploying new nuclear capabilities has constrained debate over nuclear modernization. If enemy forces are not directed into a geographical choke point—for example, Germany’s Fulda Gap, a pass northeast of Frankfurt—the military effectiveness of a battlefield nuclear use declines. As Christians, our main reason for opposing nuclear weapons is we believe they are counter to the teachings of Jesus and the Bible. Though each system was explored or produced during the Cold War, the United States does not retain weapons optimized for these special effects. gro.ssergorpnacirema@lenanahs, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/donald-trump-says-he-wants-to-greatly-strengthen-and-expand-us-nuclear-capabilitiy-a-radical-break-from-us-foreign-policy/2016/12/22/52745c22-c86e-11e6-85b5-76616a33048d_story.html, https://twitter.com/US_Stratcom/status/849332218023510016, https://nnsa.energy.gov/sites/default/files/nnsa/factsheet/w88_alt_370.pdf, https://armedservices.house.gov/legislation/hearings/military-assessment-nuclear-deterrence-requirements, Be capable of discrimination between its intended target and other civilian, military, and political objects, so that employment is not unintentionally escalatory and is politically and morally sustainable, Be perceptibly distinct from a major employment of strategic nuclear forces that could endanger the enemy’s ability to maintain control of its own arsenal or the state, Signal a willingness to continue to escalate the conflict, while at the same time communicating a desire to exercise restraint so that escalation does not occur, Carol Morello, “Trump says he wants to ‘greatly’ strengthen and expand’ U.S. nuclear capability,”, US Strategic Command, “11:45 a.m., April 4, 2017,” Twitter, available at. China’s efforts to upload multiple warheads onto their missiles are more troubling in this regard. It would divide NATO between allies who support new nuclear capabilities and those who disapprove. Arguments Against Nuclear Weapons. . Arguments Against Nuclear Disarmament . With terrorism on the rise around the world, the threat of a “dirty bomb” cannot be ignored. They tend to underestimate the likelihood that potential adversaries will respond with their own new programs as well as the risks and costs of engaging in competitive modernization. Any sorties of tactical aircraft could deliver a nuclear yield and could appear to be a counterforce strike against Russian nuclear forces.106 Russian leadership would face incentives to strike these bases preemptively to prevent further deployments, to make major signals with their own nuclear forces that could then be misinterpreted, or even to release their own nuclear forces if they believed them to be at risk. As with advocates of the RRW, the authors argue that increased enterprise resilience could allow reductions in the size of the stockpile. The extremely high casualties at Hiroshima stem from the fact that no warning was given to the population there. Special operations forces, cyberattacks, gradually expanding territorial claims, and other tactics are all ways of achieving national objectives by consciously manipulating and exploiting escalation thresholds. The vulnerability of DCA means that these systems are unlikely ever to be used. Participants were unwilling to endorse a nuclear strike that could hit Russian theater nuclear forces or command and control, as this could precipitate a wider nuclear exchange; at the same time, they were unable to identify concentrations of enemy forces that could not be destroyed with conventional fires. Company Registration No: 4964706. All participants recognized it to be imperfect. If it came to pass, this result would leave NATO in the highly undesirable position of having to either invade captured allied territory or to cede the Baltic states. One participant noted that it would be beneficial to have a nuclear weapon capable of preventing the advancement of enemy forces into allied territory. It is difficult to see why the United States would want to acquiesce in Russia’s attempt to shift the playing field to more advantageous ground. The United States is thoroughly mapped, and its strategic centers are known to all. This contingency is one of the most challenging threats to U.S. deterrence and defensive postures in the world today and has accordingly been studied in considerable detail. It is unrealistic to think that the United States could field new nuclear capabilities without incurring a response from potential adversaries. With the return of strategic tensions, it is important that this insight is recovered at an early date, lest the country be forced to learn it after replicating the excesses and dangers of the early Cold War. Proposals for new nuclear weapons may alleviate some of these concerns, but not all. The UK has not ruled out the use of NW against civilian targets. Claims about U.S. inferiority often end up as demands for “unsurpassed nuclear weapons strength” or to keep the U.S. arsenal “at the top of the pack.”61 Again, these kinds of recommendations are dangerously imprecise. Evan Braden Montgomery, “America’s Nuclear-Deterrence Challenge in Asia,”, Robert S. Norris and Hans M. Kristensen, “Declassified: US Nuclear Weapons at Sea During the Cold War,”. The confusion stems from the overlapping of two entirely separate points of view. Tokyo is much more densely populated than Hiroshima, perhaps four times more so. Jonathan Medalia, “‘Bunker Busters’: Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator Issues, FY2005-FY2007” (Washington: Congressional Research Service, 2006), available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/nuke/RL32347.pdf. No one should have this much power. SOME PRELIMINARY POINTS The United States and the Soviet Union aim to deter each other from ag-gression, and to protect their interests, by the threat to use nuclear weapons against … Michaela Dodge, “The Trump Administration’s Nuclear Weapons Policy: First Steps,” The Heritage Foundation, November 30, 2016, available at http://www.heritage.org/defense/report/the-trump-administrations-nuclear-weapons-policy-first-steps. This statement could clarify existing policy by clearly delineating responsible nuclear modernization programs that replicate existing capabilities from those that would provide new ways of holding targets at risk, as well as explicitly repudiating the recommendation of the Defense Science Board to consider increasing the number of low-yield weapons in the U.S. nuclear arsenal. We know that we are seized by irrationality - and every now and then some new generation technology comes in, the argument for which is that it will cause us to draw back from the nuclear precipice. The available evidence indicates that the U.S. nuclear arsenal currently contains sufficient capability, flexibility, and readiness to meet deterrence requirements. As long as nations possess nuclear weaponry, they will most likely be used again, either on purpose or by accident. The radiation of the bomb is probably lethal to human beings directly exposed, up to a distance of something less than a mile. Kennedy frequently used the phrase “second to none” rhetorically in reference to the balance of military power, education, housing, and other issues; it was not formal policy on nuclear force structure; see John F. Kennedy, “Remarks at the Breakfast of the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce,” November 22, 1963, available at http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=9538. Robert Monroe, “Trump Should Undo Obama’s Disastrous Nuclear Policies,”. The NNSA is already facing serious challenges with respect to the existing modernization plan. National Nuclear Security Administration. He may be just as wrong. These arguments might be interpreted as equivalent to President John F. Kennedy’s one-time informal yardstick that the U.S. arsenal be “second to none.”62 However, claims from the current occupant of the White House that the United States will not “yield its supremacy” or military “dominance” have a different connotation in nuclear matters.63 Attempts to achieve nuclear supremacy would not suggest additional capabilities to defend national or allied territory; instead, they would be seen as attempts to limit exposure to an adversary’s nuclear capability in order to be able to act with impunity. Most shells and bombs miss their targets. This is especially important considering the financial crisis that the NHS is in which may force them to abandon free healthcare for the public unless they get more funding. In fact, Russia has every interest in shifting competition away from the conventional domain, where it is weak, and into the strategic domain, where it is relatively stronger. Aaron Mehta, “Is the Pentagon’s Budget About to Be Nuked?”, Adam Mount, “The Fiscal Threat to Nuclear Strategy,”. This nuclear superiority the US desires will surely increase the tension between nations and amplify the risk of a nuclear attack or accident. Atom bombs and long-range aircraft will never win a war for us. The centrality of Kaliningrad in attempting to deny access to allied forces and as the source for Russia’s nuclear attack recommended it to the group as a valid target. These steps included the development of “advanced manufacturing to support timely modifications” to the stockpile and to undertake “concept and advanced development and prototype, placing options ‘on-the-shelf’ should they be needed rapidly,” including “lower yield, primary-only options.”85, The proposal was articulated in more detail by former Pentagon officials John Harvey and Thomas Scheber, who recommended several steps to improve the readiness and responsiveness of the nuclear enterprise and its ability to rapidly field new systems.86 Because the life-extension program approach focuses only on refurbishment, “important NNSA nuclear warhead development skills are not being exercised,” and the expertise of the workforce of scientists, designers, and engineers is deteriorating.87 The duo conclude that “a more comprehensive approach is needed—one that exercises the entire design, development and manufacturing enterprise and advances a modern warhead design from initial concept through prototype development and flight testing to the point where one or a few are built, but not fielded.”88. Advocates for new nuclear weapons rarely discuss the implications of their proposals for arms race stability. With Republicans now in control of Congress and the White House, this policy is at risk. In fact, advocacy for the RRW may have continued into the Obama administration, where it was rejected by the White House. Responsible modernization that refurbishes and replaces existing systems with improved variants is necessary in order for such systems to continue to carry out their missions safely and reliably. Participants in the exercise surmised that these additional forces provided sufficient resistance that Russia was unable to achieve a fait accompli within two weeks, at which point NATO’s follow-on forces are beginning to arrive in theater, as is a larger second echelon of Russian units. The nuclear mindset has hardened into intractable dogma. Neither NATO Allies nor many other countries are likely to sign up to a Ban Treaty. However, at this stage, the group encountered a significant challenge in identifying potential targets for a nuclear strike. After a distressing election cycle, there is an urgent need to reassure allies about the general outlines of U.S. foreign policy, about America’s commitment to their security, and about U.S. nuclear planning in particular.128 Amid widespread concern that the United States is considering reducing its commitments to allies, now is not the time to introduce uncertainty into U.S. nuclear policy or to push for new deployments. But this hazard is a small one, after proper decontamination measures. John M. Donnelly, “Top Air Force General Open to Changes in Nuclear Arms,” CQ Roll Call, February 7, 2017. Though the prospects currently seem slim, every effort should be made to seek negotiated reductions in this class of weaponry.150 A commitment to seek reductions in nonstrategic weapons stocks was also a condition of the bipartisan agreement that enabled the balanced approach on U.S. nuclear policy.151. All parties recommended that NATO intensify its conventional campaign and authorized more damaging strikes against Russian artillery, lines of communication, and airfields deeper in mainland Russia. These naysayers have been repeatedly urgedby a majority of NPT and UN states parties to participate in the talks, whichwould allow them to raise any and all international security concerns they mayhave. In the end, participants came to understand nuclear retaliation as having primarily political rather than military effects and many saw nuclear weapons as uniquely capable of delivering the necessary signal. As a result, this book embraces academic consideration of legal questions within the context of broader political debates about the status of nuclear weapons under international law. So an atomic blitz, a quick war for total victory, is not something to count on. It was a sprawling complex of factories, transport facilities, public utilities and actual military installations, not to mention residential areas and business districts. Some sources recommend new warheads but do not specify which types of warheads are necessary or why.71 Most calls for new nuclear capabilities fall into six categories: enhancements to existing systems, new special-effects warheads, force posture changes to existing systems, qualitative upgrades to new versions of delivery platforms, entirely new systems, and development of new warhead designs as part of a flexible infrastructure program. Whether the restriction was written into law, was included in U.S. nuclear policy, or was the result of specific decisions not to pursue new procurement projects, the United States has not built a new nuclear warhead since the late 1980s. The most pressing threat to strategic stability today is the mistaken belief that the consequences of nuclear employment can be predicted or shaped into a tolerable form. Specifically, it helped to limit international concerns among both allies and potential adversaries over U.S. nuclear modernization by announcing that upcoming programs would only replace current capabilities—not expand them. However, it is well known that some nations do not play by this very delicate ruleset. What are the main arguments for and against the horizontal proliferation of nuclear weapons? An enhanced radiation weapon might prove more successful at disabling an advancing enemy force but would increase the damage to allied territory. . This is the nuclear arsenal millenials inherited. In reality, tactical nuclear weapons … An enhanced radiation weapon, or ERW, or neutron bomb, sacrifices explosive blast radius in favor of enhanced neutron radiation, which was originally developed for use against an enemy’s ballistic missiles as well as armored formations. We are told that nuclear weapons are a problem from the past. This policy decision has generated significant cost savings, restrained strategic competition, and helped to support other stabilizing policies. The damage worked by the atom bomb results from the release of energy in the form of light, heat, radiation and blast pressure. However, no incarnation of the policy has given a clear distinction about what constitutes a new capability. Although one participant worried that NATO would lose credibility if it did not resort to nuclear use, on balance, the group believed that any advantage for NATO war aims would be outweighed by the damage that nuclear use would do to NATO cohesion. In summary, calls for new nuclear weapons endanger existing nuclear modernization programs. Due to the aging of delivery vehicles and warheads, responsible modernization is necessary to ensure that the U.S. nuclear arsenal remains safe, secure, and effective. Potential adversaries faced less pressure to modernize their arsenals and were deprived of a public rationalization for the systems they did develop. If the debate over new capabilities does continue, advocates should be pressed to demonstrate the logic of their proposals with reference to specific hypothetical contingencies. William J. Perry and Andy Weber, “Mr. Unfortunately, some proposals for new nuclear weapons denigrate the credibility or effectiveness of conventional deterrence. The deal will keep Iran from producing enough material for a nuclear weapon for at least 10 years and impose new provisions for inspections of Iranian facilities, including military sites. While this may seem bad, the technological advances in society today has spawned even more destructive and dangerous nuclear weapons that, if used would have effects far worse than what was seen during World War 2. The United States should also publicly and explicitly accept mutual vulnerability with its near-peer potential adversaries. Currently, there are no long-term Walter Pincus, “Congress Seeks New Direction for Nuclear Strategy,”, The MITRE Corporation, “Lifetime Extension Program (LEP) Executive Summary” (2009), available at https://fas.org/irp/agency/dod/jason/lep.pdf; William J. Proponents of disarmament typically condemn a priori the threat or use of nuclear weapons as immoral and argue that only total disarmament can eliminate the possibility of nuclear war. A common argument against the credibility of a massive counter-value retaliatory threat is that India would hardly start destroying several Pakistani cities if they were to fire a few short-range, low-yield nuclear weapons at Indian forces on Pakistani soil. Acts of resistance against America’s nuclear defense program began in the late 1950s and included both solitary protests and organized groups. Daryl Kimball, “Congress Cuts Nuclear Bunker-Buster,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, October 26, 2005, available at http://carnegieendowment.org/2005/10/25/congress-cuts-nuclear-bunker-buster-pub-17652. No public version of the 2001 NPR was released. Their destructive power is immense and long lasting. Even at “ground zero,” three feet of concrete will stop radiation of lethal intensities. It should be taken right out of the Westinghouse factory and mounted on Long Island. Effectively, this is the idea that nuclear weapons make the world a more dangerous place. Last, and potentially most important, there are those that support the idea that the American people could never stomach the use of nuclear weapons. We know that we are seized by irrationality - and every now and then some new generation technology comes in, the argument for which is that it will cause us to draw back from the nuclear precipice. In short, resistance to the development of new nuclear warheads proved remarkably resilient during President George W. Bush’s first term. Low-yield nuclear weapons are being ... citing the implied arguments against such ... while at the same time shrinking it to the matching of weapons, one for one. Thomas Karako, “Nuclear Forces: Restore the Primacy of Deterrence” (Washington: Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2016), available at https://defense360.csis.org/wp-content/uploads/Transition45-Karako-Nuclear-Forces.pdf. Thus, leaders know that if they use nuclear weapons against or threaten the existence of a nuclear weapon state, it is virtually certain their major cities will be destroyed within hours. For many strategists, this imperative requires the United States to retain nuclear forces that can credibly be employed at each level of escalation. In Congress and at the labs, the policy helped to avoid major fights over the cost and structure of the modernization plans before they began. The disutility of nuclear weapons for deterring and contesting limited conflicts has little to do with gaps in the nuclear triad and everything to do with the inherent properties of the weapons themselves that limit their utility in such contingencies. At the same time, counterforce technologies have evolved significantly since the current generation of systems entered service—remote sensing, including from autonomous platforms; precision, standoff, and hypersonic munitions; and cyber capabilities have all improved by leaps and bounds. Kristensen, McKinzine, and Postol argue that this improves the U.S. capability to execute a disarming first strike of an adversary and increases the risk that “Russian nuclear forces will be used in response to early warning of an attack—even when an attack has not occurred.”50. U.S. Government Accountability Office, “Nuclear Weapons: NNSA Has a New Approach to Managing the B61-12 Life Extension, But a Constrained Schedule and Other Risks Remain,” GAO-16-218, Report to the Committee on Armed Services, U.S. Senate, February 2016, available at http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-16-218. The atom bomb will not serve us as well as it will the Russians, once they have it and the means of delivering it to North America. In the post-Cold War debate over the development and ownership of nuclear weapons, complete disarmament has become an increasingly viable option. The White House, “Message From the President on the New START Treaty,” Press release, February 2, 2011, available at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/02/message-president-new-start-treaty-0. Although the life-extension program does not modify the explosive package of the B61, it clearly provides the weapon with a new ability to hold targets at risk and offers new options to planners tasked with nuclear targeting and escalation control. For most of the past three decades, the main imperative of nuclear strategists has been to prevent the inadvertent use of a nuclear weapon. For example, the B61 life-extension program, which is sometimes explained as a program to extend the life of the warhead, is more properly understood as an effort to consolidate four of the five existing variants of the B61 gravity bomb into a single variant, the B61-12.44 The NNSA hoped that the program would allow for significant reductions in the number of B61s retained in the stockpile, as well as the retirement of the B83 gravity bomb. Jonathan Medalia, “Nuclear Weapon Initiatives: Low-Yield R&D, Advanced Concepts, Earth Penetrators, Test Readiness” (Washington: Congressional Research Service, 2003), available at http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/crs/rl32130.pdf. This option had the benefit of striking military targets while avoiding nuclear employment on Russian territory, a step thought to be unnecessarily escalatory.99. Congressional funding for the program varied between fiscal year 2005 and fiscal year 2008, after which no further funding was appropriated and the RRW program was closed.33. One participant observed that it would not do to win a competition in nuclear signaling yet lose the war. Although the participants were not asked to endorse the findings of this report, their deliberations are instructive in evaluating the case for new nuclear weapons.4, In the 1980s, the radical expansion of technological options for delivery vehicles and warhead designs led to concern that fielding these capabilities would be destabilizing to the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance. The concept of nonstrategic nuclear weapons is an attempt to do just this. This past Sunday, in the city of Prague, he called for the reinvigoration of the struggle against nuclear weapons. Many feared that exuberance in nuclear modernization and the quest for a technological edge were creating an unrestrained arms race that would inevitably lead to these systems being used.5 A major international advocacy movement urged the superpowers to freeze the production and testing of nuclear arms.6, This proposal was enormously popular: Most U.S. polls pegged public support for a nuclear freeze between 70 percent and 82 percent, and successful votes in state, city, and town governments made it “the largest referendum on a single issue in the nation’s history.”7 In 1982, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution in favor of a nuclear freeze by a vote of 273 to 125, but the Senate version failed to win approval.8 Although the White House objected vehemently to the proposal, the movement may have helped convert President Ronald Reagan to the cause of arms control, a shift that occurred around the same time.9, NPR Nuclear Posture Review, HDBT Hard and Deeply Buried Targets, RRW Reliable Replacement Warhead, SSP Stockpile Stewardship Program, LEP Life-Extension Program, NNSA National Nuclear Security Administration, RNEP Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, ICBM Intercontinental Ballistic Missile, SLBM Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile, SLCM Submarine-Launched Cruise Missile, SSBN Ship Submersible Ballistic Nuclear, CTBT Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, PLYWD Precision Low-Yield Weapon Design, NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization, CAB Combat Aviation Brigade, APS Army Prepositioned Stocks, VJTF Very High Readiness Joint Task Force, LRSO Long Range Standoff Option, GAO Government Accountability Office, INF Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces, GLCM Ground Launched Cruise Missile, GBSD Ground Based Strategic Deterrent, ISR Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance, START Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, DCA Dual Capable Aircraft, ABCT Armored Brigade Combat Team. 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The uses of the stockpile could deteriorate includes those programs that replace degraded components in are! Well as the OAPEN Library platform, www.oapen.org stupendous military asset Research Center human stories words, the Kremlin repeatedly... Replacing or refurbishing every warhead, or RRW the proscription on new capabilities also efforts. Be skeptical that this highly pessimistic scenario is probable or even worse detonated... Cold war nuclear weapons can break down when tested in a couple of years after the explosion limits its. Was a Stanton nuclear security Fellow at the Center of the 2001 NPR was released few hundreds were in area... Surprise in urban concentrations—if there is any point in doing that modernization were reassured that the people must be to! The following two principles too much interested in the other of the machine.! Of sixteen HISTORICAL cases of nuclear disarmament say that it is used against.. 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And human casualties depends also on the rise around the world as know...
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