FPI / October 18, 2023
Geostrategy-Direct
The Untied States must rapidly expand its nuclear arsenal or risk being unable to deter the strategic nuclear threat posed by the China-Russia alliance, a new report by the Congressional Commission on the Nuclear Posture of the United States said.
“It is an existential challenge for which the United States is ill-prepared, unless its leaders make decisions now to adjust the U.S. strategic posture,” the 160-page report released on Oct. 12 warned.
While the current U.S. nuclear posture is strong, “it is ill-prepared for the potentially existential challenges of 2027-2035 and beyond,” the report said.
Strategic deterrence also should be backed by advanced technology and offensive space power, the report said, including big data analytics, quantum computing and artificial intelligence that can be used to prevent “strategic surprise.”
The military also needs to speed up building long-range non-nuclear precision strike weapons in greater quantities than currently planned, the report said.
U.S. analysts now estimate that communist China’s warhead stockpile surpassed 400 in 2021 and will reach over 700 by 2027 and over 1,000 by 2030, security correspondent Bill Gertz noted in a Washington Times report. The current pace means the warhead stockpile will be at least 1,500 warheads by 2035.
China‘s stunning nuclear surge was not factored in the current U.S. nuclear modernization program, the report said.
In addition to expanding its long-range missiles, Beijing also has deployed and is building new intercontinental systems, including hypersonic missiles and a space-transiting “fractional or multiple orbital bombardment systems” that the report said “could potentially threaten an unwarned preemptive attack on the United States.”
China’s military also has low-yield nuclear forces that could be used to attack American military forces.
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