Can America Prevent Russia from Using Low-Yield Nukes?

Can America Prevent Russia from Using Low-Yield Nukes?

Putin may be too confident in his ability to wage and win a nuclear war.

[19] “Russia: Comments by Deputy Defense Minister Ostapenko on Aerospace Defense Troops Programs Commentary by Interfaks-AVN, Moscow, 24 April: The New S-500 Air Defense Missile System Will Be Able To Effectively Combat Advanced Offensive Aerospace Weapons…” Interfax-AVN Online, April 26, 2013. (Translated by World News Connection).: “Regiment of S-400 to enter duty in Sevastopol in February 2018,” TASS, October 24, 2017, available at http:// tass.com/defense/972236.

[20] “Russian Armed Forces will get five S-400 air defense systems in September-October 2016,” TASS, February 29, 2016, available at http://tass.ru/en/defense/859641.: “S-400 missile defense regiment takes up combat duty outside Moscow (VIDEO),” Sputnik News, January 11, 2017, available at https://sputniknews.com/russia/2017011110 49464109-russia-s-400-moscow/.

[21] Nuclear Posture Review, op. cit., p. 53.

[22] Quoted in Mark B. Schneider, “The Future of the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent,” Comparative Strategy, Vol. 27, No. 4 (October 31, 2008), p. 348, available at http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01495930802358539.

[23] “Russian Federation Will Increase Role of Tactical Nuclear Weapons on Multirole Nuclear Submarines,” Gazeta, March 23, 2009, available at https://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/460452801?Accounted =155509.

[24] “Russia’s Severodvinsk attack sub to be armed with new cruise missiles,” BBC Monitoring Former Soviet Union, March 27, 2009, available at https://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/460438489? Accounted =155509.

[25] “Meeting with Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu,” Kremlin.ru, December 8, 2015, available at http://en.kremlin. ru/events/president/news/50892.

[26] “Shipbuilding And Navy; Severodvinsk nuclear sub tests will end in 2012 - Navy commander,” Interfax, August 24, 2012, available at https://dialog.proquest.com/professional/docview/1038339219?accountid=155509.

[27] John T. Correll, “The Neutron Bomb,” Air Force Magazine, December 2017, available at http://www. Airforce mag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2017/December%202017/The-Neutron-Bomb.aspx.

[28] Nikolai Sokov, “TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS ELIMINATION: NEXT STEP FOR ARMS CONTROL,” The Nonproliferation Review, Winter 1997, p. 18, available at http://www.nonproliferation.org/wp-content/uploads/ npr/sokov42.pdf.

[29] “New Generation of Arms,” The Moscow Times, June 7, 1994, available at http://www.themoscowtimes.com/ news/article/new-generation-of-arms/212085.html.

[30] Sokov, “TACTICAL NUCLEAR WEAPONS ELIMINATION: NEXT STEP FOR ARMS CONTROL,” op. cit., p. 18.: George Lewis and Andrea Gabbitas, “What Should Be Done About Tactical Nuclear Weapons?”, (Washington D.C., The Atlantic Council, March 1999, p. 18.

[31] Quoted in Schneider, “The Future of the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent,” op. cit., p. 348.

[32] Quoted Mark B. Schneider, The Nuclear Forces and Doctrine of the Russian Federation, (Fairfax Va.: National Institute Press, 2006), p. 20, available at http://www.nipp.org/Publication/Downloads/ Publication% 20 Archive% 20PDF/Russian%20nuclear%20doctrine%20--%20NSF%20for%20print.pdf.

[33] Quoted in Schneider, “The Future of the U.S. Nuclear Deterrent,” op. cit., p. 348.

[34] Quoted in Schneider, The Nuclear Forces and Doctrine of the Russian Federation, op. cit., p. 16.

[35] John W. Parker, Russia’s Revival: Ambitions, Limitations, and Opportunities for the United States (Washington, D.C.: Institute for National Strategic Studies, January 2011), p, 23, available at John W. Parker, Russia’s Revival: Ambitions, Limitations, and Opportunities for the United States (Washington, D.C.: Institute for National Strategic Studies, January 2011), p, 23, available at http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/ u2/a546683.pdf.

[36] Pavel Felgenhauer, “Russia Seeks to Impose New ABM Treaty on the US by Developing BMD,” Eurasia Daily Monitor, Vol. 7, No. 136 (July 16, 2010), available at http://www.jamestown.org/single/?no_cache=1&tx_Ttnews [tt_news]=36624.

[37] “News Briefing on the 2018 Nuclear Posture Review,” U.S. Department of Defense, February 2, 2018, available at https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1431945/news-briefing-on-the-2018-nuclear-posture-review/.

[38] Owen C. W. Price and Jenifer Mackby, eds., Debating 21st Century Nuclear Issues, (Washington, DC: Center For Strategic and International Studies, 2007), 23, available at www.northropgrumman.com/analysis-center/other-publications/assets/triad-mono graph.pdf.

[39] Hans M. Kristensen, “B61-12: The New Guided Standoff Nuclear Bomb,” Federation of American Scientists, May 2, 2014, available at https://fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/publications1/Brief2014_PREPCOM2.pdf.

[40] James R. Howe, “Potential Military Utility of Russian Employment of Advanced Technology Nuclear Weapons in Europe—Implications for US Extended Deterrence,” Vision Centric, Inc., no date.

[41] Defense Science Board, Seven Defense Priorities for the New Administration, (Washington. D.C.: The Defense Science Board, December 2016), p. 24, available at https://www.acq.osd.mil/dsb/reports/2010s/Seven_Defense_Priorities.pdf.

[42] Maxim Trudolyubov, “Putin Is Pushing a War Mentality on Unwilling Russians (Op-ed),” The Moscow Times, March 6, 2016, available at https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/putin-is-pushing-a-war-mentality-on-unwilling-russians-op-ed-60714.

[43] “Presidential Address to the Federal Assembly,” The Kremlin, March 1, 2018, available at http://en.kremlin.ru/ events/president/news/56957.

[44] Pavel Felgenhauer, “Putin Unveils Array of Nuclear ‘Super Weapons’ Aimed at US,” Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 32, (March 1, 2018), available at https://jamestown.org/program/putin-unveils-array-of-nuclear-super-weapons-aimed-at-us/.

[45] Roger McDermott, “Russia’s Armed Forces Rehearse New ‘Shock-Fire’ Tactics,” Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 34, (March 6, 2018), available at https://jamestown.org/program/russias-armed-forces-rehearse-new-shock-fire-tactics/.

[46] Derek Williams and Adam B. Lowther, “Lower-Yield Weapons Will Raise, Not Lower, the Threshold for Nuclear Use,” Defense One, August 29, 2017, available at http://www.defenseone.com/ideas/ 2017/08/lower-yield-weapons-will-raise-not-lower-threshold-nuclear-use/140610/.

This article originally appeared on Real Clear Defense.

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