More has come out from the Aug. 5-6 U.S. Strategic Command’s annual Deterrence Symposium in Omaha, Nebraska, on the talk of seeking more “options” for the U.S. to consider using nuclear weapons. During his Aug. 5 speech to the event, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby repeatedly spoke about giving “options” to the president, though at the same time asserting that as of right now, he had “no announcement of any kind of change” regarding the Pentagon’s nuclear policy, [reported Breaking Defense](https://breakingdefense.com/2026/08/pentagon-wants-expanding-options-for-nuclear-weapons-officials-say/
), basing itself on an audio recording that it obtained. “There’s, you know, a review or sort of relook at the employment guidance, which is more about the commander of STRATCOM [Strategic Command] and his responsibilities and [the defense) secretary’s authorities, etcetera,” he said.
Colby broadly touched on the topic of regional wars and a growing focus on smaller, tactical nuclear weapons as a way to supposedly limit mass destruction, saying the U.S. needs more “rational nuclear options” to respond. “What I would fear more” than a “mass attack” on the United States, he said, “is a regional war …kind of local war, a conventional war that might have local employment, God forbid, of [nuclear] weapons that could escalate from there.”
Adm. Richard Correll, Commander of the United States Strategic Command, in a separate call with reporters, declined to comment on internal Pentagon deliberations, but stressed that the United States has not changed its declaratory policy when it comes to nuclear and strategic capabilities. He said that the department is looking at ways of “expanding options” available to the president and providing the “decision space for any conceivable escalation scenario.” Not noted is that U.S. declaratory policy has never excluded first-use of nuclear weapons.
