08:19
USA, more nuclear weapons if the course of China and Russia does not change
The United States they could be forced to expand their atomic arsenal if the nuclear strategy of China and Russia does not change: this was said by a senior director of the National Security Council, Pranay Vaddi, as reported by the New York Times (NYT). “Absent a change in the trajectory of the adversary arsenal, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from the current number of deployed units will be necessary, and we must be fully prepared to execute it if the President makes this decision,” Vaddi said.
For now, the United States is modernizing, not expanding its nuclear arsenal, the senior official stressed, adding that Washington stands ready to pursue arms control agreements to reduce nuclear threats by “limiting and shaping” adversaries’ nuclear forces , Vaddi said. However, Russia’s refusal to negotiate a successor nuclear arms control agreement to the current one – the New Start – has “cast a shadow” over diplomatic issues, Vaddi noted: “At least in the short term, the prospects for nuclear arms control of strategic armaments are weak.” Speaking at the annual meeting of the Arms Control Association, a group that advocates for limits on nuclear weapons, Vaddi said that the development of the B61-13 gravity bomb – a nuclear weapon intended for use against large, hardened military targets – it is an example of the type of projects the United States would pursue absent a change in Russia and China’s nuclear strategy.
The words of the director of the National Security Council, comments the NYT, represent the most explicit public warning so far that the United States is ready to move from simply modernizing its arsenal to expansion. As well as being a warning to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the likely US reaction if New Start expires in February 2026 without being replaced. There have been no talks with Russia since it invaded Ukraine to negotiate a replacement deal for New Start, which limits each country to 1,550 deployed strategic nuclear weapons, the kind that can be launched from continent to continent.
