{"id":223507,"date":"2022-11-14T12:01:47","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T12:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=223507"},"modified":"2022-11-09T04:58:34","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T04:58:34","slug":"us-nuclear-forces-chief-the-big-one-is-coming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2022\/11\/us-nuclear-forces-chief-the-big-one-is-coming\/","title":{"rendered":"US Nuclear Forces Chief: \u2018The Big One Is Coming\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of US Strategic Command called the war in Ukraine a ‘warmup’ for what is to come.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Navy Adm. Charles Richard, commander US Strategic Command, testifies in a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on March 8, 2022.<\/p><\/div>\n

6 Nov 2022 – <\/em>The commander that oversees US nuclear forces delivered an ominous warning at a naval conference last week by calling the war in Ukraine a \u201cwarmup\u201d for the \u201cbig one\u201d that is to come.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis Ukraine crisis that we\u2019re in right now, this is just the warmup,\u201d said Navy Adm. Charles Richard<\/a>, the commander of US Strategic command. \u201cThe big one is coming. And it isn\u2019t going to be very long before we\u2019re going to get tested in ways that we haven\u2019t been tested [in] a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richard\u2019s warning came after the US released its new Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which reaffirms that the US doctrine allows for the first use of nuclear weapons<\/a>. The review says that the purpose of the US nuclear arsenal is to \u201cdeter strategic attacks, assure allies and partners, and achieve US objectives if deterrence fails.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NPR says the US<\/a> \u201cwould only consider the use of nuclear weapons in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its Allies or partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NPR was released with the 2022 National Defense Strategy that names China as the \u201cmost comprehensive and serious challenge\u201d to the US and describes Russia as an \u201cacute threat.\u201d The document, as with the previous 2018 National Defense Strategy<\/a>, makes clear that the US military is preparing for future conflicts with both China and Russia.<\/p>\n

As the head of STRATCOM, Richard had previously warned that the risk of nuclear war with Russia and China is a \u201creal possibility.\u201d<\/a> He said last year that the US military must \u201cshift its principal assumption from \u2018nuclear employment is not possible\u2019 to \u2018nuclear employment is a very real possibility,\u2019 and act to meet and deter that reality.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nuclear Posture Review calls for the modernization of the nuclear triad, which could cost up to $1.5 trillion<\/a>, and keeping tensions high with Russia and China helps justify the massive price tag. Richard said last week that the US needs to put more resources into competing with China\u2019s military.<\/p>\n

Congress is looking to spend big on arming Taiwan, with a plan to give the island $10 billion in military aid<\/a> included in the Senate\u2019s version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act. While done in the name of deterrence, China\u2019s actions<\/a> and rhetoric<\/a> make it clear that more US support for Taiwan will make war in the region more likely.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Dave DeCamp is the news editor of<\/em> antiwar.com.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – antiwar.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

6 Nov 2022 – The commander that oversees US nuclear forces delivered an ominous warning at a naval conference last week by calling the war in Ukraine a \u201cwarmup\u201d for the \u201cbig one\u201d that is to come. [Having fun yet?]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":223508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[867,244,1126,1050,1301,450,112,278,95,70,1594,481,2534],"class_list":["post-223507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-militarism","tag-anglo-america","tag-china","tag-hegemony","tag-imperialism","tag-nuclear-war","tag-nuclear-weapons","tag-pentagon","tag-russia","tag-us-military","tag-usa","tag-war-economy","tag-warfare","tag-wwiii"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}