Prove It: Nuclear Posture and the Fear of Surprise Attack
Timothy McDonnell
June 22, 2018
Writing recently in this forum, Lieutenant Commander Frank Nuño and Dr. Vaughn Standley highlighted the significant departure that the new Nuclear Posture Review makes from past practice: The document explicitly addresses the threat of surprise nuclear attack — “bolts from the blue.†Specifically, as Nuño and Standley note, the Nuclear Posture Review states that the United States “will maintain a portion of its nuclear forces on alert day-to-day, and retain the option of launching those forces promptly†to maximize decision time, preserve options, and deter potential adversaries from attempting a surprise first strike. (For the record, I also wrote on this subject before the document’s publication.)
https://warontherocks.com/2018/06/prove-it-nuclear-posture-and-the-fear-of-surprise-attack/
