The US Congressional Commission on Strategic Posture has called for the US to prepare for a “new reality” of facing two nuclear peer adversaries with “ambitions to change the international status quo, by force, if necessary.”
The report noted that while the risk of a major nuclear war remains low, the risk of military conflict with Russia and China has grown.
The report pushes for a strategy reform that stresses stronger nuclear countermeasures as a defense cornerstone.
Nuclear Changes
Commission Chair Madelyn Creedon and Vice Chair John Kyl underlined that the US needs to review its nuclear weapons policy, strategy, and force structure.
“China’s rapid military build-up, including the unprecedented growth of its nuclear forces, Russia’s diversification and expansion of its theater-based nuclear systems, the invasion of Ukraine in 2014 and subsequent full-scale invasion in February 2022, have all fundamentally altered the geopolitical landscape,” they said.
They called this new global environment radically different from anything experienced in the past.
They added that the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and National Security Administration should look to the private sector to improve US military technology to keep up.
Other recommendations included deploying additional tactical nuclear weapons in Asia and Europe, increased production of B-21 stealth bombers and Columbia-class nuclear submarines, and urgent execution of the US nuclear modernization program.
Reinforcing Other Capabilities
The commission also recommended changes to America’s non-nuclear capabilities, including boosts to space force offensive and defensive elements, investments in emerging technologies such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and increased funding for developing integrated air and missile defenses.
Creedon and Kyl clarified that these changes were suggested without a cost analysis, but that these investments should be communicated to citizens as the need to modernize the country’s capabilities is urgent.
“We believe that sustained bipartisan consensus is possible and necessary to secure a strong future and credible deterrent for the United States,” they said.
