TRUMP TAKING TOUGHER STANCE ON RUSSIA NUCLEAR THREAT
See the world as it is, not as we wish it to be, says defence secy
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration has unveiled a policy that seeks to modernise the nuclear arsenal of the US and develop new types of less powerful nuclear warheads, arguing potential adversaries, mainly Russia, China and North Korea, have been rapidly improving their capabilities.
The warheads will be low-yield nuclear weapons for ballistic and cruise missiles launched from submarines. Unveiling the Nuclear Policy Review (NPR), US officials insisted its goal remains deterrence as it has been for decades, but critics said it expands reliance on nuclear weapons, marking a shift away from the Obama administration’s policy to reduce reliance, and could start an arms race.
President Donald Trump, who had ordered a review of the policy last January, said on Friday that while the US had made “efforts to reduce the roles and numbers of nuclear weapons, other nuclear nations grew their stockpiles, increased the prominence of nuclear weapons in their security strategies”.
The new policy addresses those challenges now, he added.
“We must look reality in the eye and see the world as it is, not as we wish it to be,” defence secretary James Mattis wrote in a signed introduction to the policy. “This NPR reflects the current, pragmatic assessment of the threats we face and the uncertainties regarding the future security environment.”
The review identified Russia and China as posing the gravest threat as they “have added new types of nuclear capabilities to their arsenals, increased the salience of nuclear forces in their strategies and plans, and engaged in increasingly aggressive behaviour”. And North Korea’s “illicit pursuit” of nuclear weapons and Iran, despite the nuclear deal. And “violent non- state actors”.
To address the challenges, in the near-term, the US will modify a small number of existing SLBM (submarine launched ballistic missiles) warheads.
And in the longer term, it will pursue a modern nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile.