Monday, February 5, 2018

The Tiny Nukes Trump Wants Could Be More Dangerous Than Big Ones



By David Axe

With today’s nuclear weapons, there are pretty much no options for US leaders to wage a “small” atomic war. You either end the world or you don't. In concept, that all-or-nothing proposition makes nuclear conflict less likely.

But President Donald Trump wants more weapons with small yields, which would in theory give military planners more options for waging a "limited" nuclear war that, while unimaginably destructive, would presumably stop short of completely wiping out human civilization.

he Trump administration reportedly also wants to loosen the rules for using them. Together, the twin policies could raise the risk of catastrophic atomic war, some experts warn.

The smaller nukes and looser rules are being codified as part of the administration's ongoing Nuclear Posture Review, a formal study of America's atomic arsenal and strategy that presidents traditionally oversee at least once in their years in office.

Read the rest here.

1 comment:

  1. I guess the time limits on classification have expired since 1967, so I'll say that we had small nukes mounted on Talos missiles in (and out of) North Vietnamese waters at that time. PIRAZ Station. Obviously could launch by local command.

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