Last night, just before going into his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Oct. 29, U.S. President Donald Trump posted the following on Truth Social: “The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office. Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years. Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”
But what does it mean? Does it mean nuclear explosive testing? No country, other than North Korea, has detonated a nuclear explosive device since 1998. Russia has recently announced testing the Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed underwater drone, but these were tests of delivery platforms, for which the U.S. has no equivalent. The U.S. carries out operational testing of its nuclear missiles on an annual basis, as does Russia, to ensure reliability, but that doesn’t involve live warheads. The U.S. has an extensive program of testing of warhead components that involves computer simulations, and even “subcritical” explosive tests that don’t trigger nuclear reactions. Finally, a nuclear explosive test can’t be fired off on a whim, without extensive preparation.
So what is Trump talking about?
