Pentagon Concerned Russia Open to Using Nukes

Russia appears to be actively considering the limited use of nuclear weapons, and the Trump administration's nuclear doctrine of "deterrence" will answer the threat, a senior defense official said Monday.

The Washington Free Beacon reported deputy undersecretary of defense David Trachtenberg told the Heritage Foundation the United States has been "extremely concerned with what we have seen as the evolution of Russian military policy as it relates to potential use of nuclear weapons."

"Russian nuclear doctrine seems to actively consider the possibility of limited nuclear use," he said, the Free Beacon reported.

"Russian military exercises . . . in some cases have involved levels of activity involving strategic nuclear forces that we haven't seen since the heyday of the Cold War, and some of those exercises have involved the simulated use of nuclear weapons as part of what has been referred to as an 'escalate to deescalate strategy.'"

The Trump administration's Nuclear Posture Review calls for the development of new low-yield nuclear weapons, including a nuclear-armed sea-launched cruise missile and a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

"The goal of our recommendations is to deter war, not to fight one," Trachtenberg said. "If nuclear weapons are employed in conflict, it is because deterrence failed, and the goal of the 2018 [Nuclear Posture Review] is to make sure that deterrence will not fail."

"Our purpose now is to disabuse any thinking on the part of — not just the Russian leadership, but any potential adversary's leadership — to disabuse them of the notion that there is some level of conflict or some level of escalation that they feel they can engage in where they are not at risk of . . . a commensurate response."

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