The Wall Street Journal, in the aftermath of the Nov. 15 release of the unclassified Pentagon report on the nuclear employment guidance, reported that Biden Administration officials are calling on the incoming Trump administration to be prepared to expand the size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Biden’s policy, administration officials say, stresses the importance of developing advanced nonnuclear systems and deepening military cooperation with allies in Asia and Europe to cope with the potential dangers, the Journal reports. However, the Pentagon is also supposedly preparing options to deploy more nuclear warheads should those efforts prove insufficient, citing the growing threat of “adversaries” such as China, Russia, and North Korea.
“If current trends continue in the negative direction with Russia saying ‘no’ to arms control, China building up and North Korea building up, there may be a need to increase the number of deployed U.S. nuclear weapons in the future,” said a senior Biden administration official. “The question is can you make it less of a need if you do better on the conventional side and by integrating closely with allies.”
The Wall Street Journal adds that the Pentagon report doesn’t outline specific options under consideration, but notes that “it may be necessary to adapt current U.S. nuclear force capability, posture, composition, or size” to deal with “multiple adversaries who are making nuclear weapons more central to their national security strategies.”
The Wall Street daily further observes that such a change had already been hinted at by Biden Administration officials in public speeches last summer in what amounts to a “the devil made me do it” threat. Pranay Vaddi, the top nuclear official on the National Security Council, told a JUne meeting of the Arms Control Association: “Let me be clear. Absent a change in the trajectory of adversary arsenals, we may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. And we need to be fully prepared to execute if the President makes that decision.”
