President Donald Trump announced on Thursday, “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.”
Russia denies it is engaged in testing. But to trust the Kremlin to keep to its nuclear weapons treaty obligations is willful idiocy.
In recent years, Russia has repeatedly violated its international commitments. It has broken promises made under the Chemical Weapons Convention and systematically breached the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. As first reported by the Washington Examiner, Moscow is also violating the Outer Space Treaty, which bans putting nuclear weapons in orbit. Most recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to intimidate Trump over new sanctions over the war in Ukraine by announcing a test of the Burevestnik — a nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile.
Trump, his strange affection for Putin notwithstanding, has never shown weakness on U.S. nuclear security. By recommencing nuclear weapons tests, Trump is advancing America’s critical interest in retaining strategic dominance in this ultimate form of warfare. It’s a necessary prerequisite to deterring adversaries and helps provide a token of their ultimate defeat.
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The Department of Energy has ensured that the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile is viable since tests were suspended in 1992. Still, Trump’s resumption of physical, underground tests provides three benefits:
First, they prove the effective function of nuclear weapons. While simulations give a very good probability of a weapon’s viability, physical tests are the gold standard. This is particularly valuable for newer weapons such as the smaller-yield W76-2 nuclear warhead. Second, new tests will provide technical insight that will help toward improvements and refinements. Third, tests teach adversaries that Trump will match their nuclear escalation.
The president’s announcement comes after years of covert Chinese and Russian weapons testing conducted through multiple methods and at underground sites. Despite repeated denials from Moscow and Beijing, U.S. intelligence is well aware of these activities. According to Washington Examiner reporting, the intelligence is drawn from highly sensitive operations conducted on Russian and Chinese territory. Meanwhile, China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal to match American and Russian stockpiles. In his statement this week, Trump warned that Beijing could achieve nuclear parity within five years.
On Wednesday, as though to underline the need for our own action, Putin emphasized his Burevestnik system while announcing the test of a separate nuclear weapons system, the Poseidon. Poseidon is a high-speed, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered undersea drone designed for surprise attacks on U.S. carrier groups and irradiation attacks on U.S. naval bases.
Trump is responding to nuclear threats, not provoking them. During his first term, Trump authorized the deployment of W76-2 warheads on U.S. nuclear ballistic submarines. Where former President Barack Obama avoided doing so for fear of aggravating Putin, Trump recognized the need to counter Russia’s smaller-yield weapons. Russia hopes that it can paralyze NATO in future wars by forcing the alliance to choose between responding to small, localized Russian nuclear attacks with high-yield nuclear weapons, thus risking full-scale nuclear war, or doing nothing and ceding victory to Moscow.
In July, Trump redeployed nuclear gravity bombs to the United Kingdom. And responding to Russian nuclear threats earlier this year, Trump warned that he had deployed two nuclear ballistic missile submarines to waters near Russia.
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It is unfortunate that we live in a time when new nuclear weapons tests are required. But with Beijing and Moscow determined to gain nuclear superiority over America, and North Korea advancing its own limited but potent nuclear capability, Trump is fulfilling his responsibilities as commander in chief.
The Roman military scholar Vegetius couldn’t have dreamed of nuclear weapons during his lifetime. But nuclear weapons deliver absolute vindication to his old adage: “Let him who desires peace prepare for war.”