American researchers: Washington’s nuclear weapons modernization will not be a deterrent against China

According to Isna, the English newspaper “Financial Times” reported that a simulated military exercise conducted by researchers affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) showed the ineffectiveness of Washington’s plans to modernize the arsenal. It has specified its nuclear weapons.

According to this newspaper, a growing number of American experts have recently recommended that Washington acquire more nuclear capabilities, including more tactical nuclear weapons, which could indicate a competition with Beijing over nuclear weapons.

However, researchers from the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a computer simulation laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States concluded after reviewing the simulated exercise that the modernization of US nuclear weapons beyond the current point would have no effect on the deterrence of a possible war over Taiwan. had

According to the Financial Times, in this simulated war scenario, the possibility of the US or China using nuclear weapons was not evaluated, but rather what military situations might compel Chinese or American commanders on the battlefield to use these weapons during a hypothetical war in the year 2028 on Taiwan and what kind of change will such an event bring about in the continuation of the war.

In such exercises, teams of military and government officials or experts simulate war scenarios by role-playing as competing sides using computer models and debating.

According to the Financial Times, the Taiwan war simulation scenario by the CSIS and MIT institutes has been implemented while in Washington there is a debate on how to respond to China’s plans to modernize and expand its nuclear weapons, concerns about the possibility of joint military actions between China and Russia, and the positions Moscow’s nuclear power is relevant to the war in Ukraine.

For several decades, China has focused on the ability to counter any nuclear attack by its enemy, without wanting to match the size of the nuclear arsenal with the world’s top 2 nuclear powers, namely Russia and the United States.

However, the Pentagon has estimated that Beijing will double the number of nuclear warheads in its operational state by 2030, which was estimated at 500 last year.

Some other experts have estimated the current number of nuclear warheads in China’s arsenal to be around 440. The People’s Liberation Army of China has now achieved the capability to launch its nuclear missiles from submarines in addition to aircraft, mobile trailers and silos.

According to several American experts, the increase in the number of nuclear weapons can compensate for the deficiencies in the field of conventional weapons, and they have proposed the deployment of new tactical nuclear weapons to target enemy forces on the battlefield, but various scenarios for war simulation have shown that there is no need for such capabilities. is not

“The United States has more than 600 tactical nuclear warheads and is modernizing their launch equipment,” said Eric Heginbotham, an expert on China’s nuclear issues at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and one of the authors of the report on the Taiwan war simulation exercise. “During a recent exercise, an American team that used tactical nuclear weapons only used fewer than 12 of them.”

He said that in none of the scenarios was there a need for tools beyond what is in the US government’s current modernization program.

The authors of this report from the two institutes stated that American policymakers should not “develop more nuclear weapons for war with China beyond the current nuclear modernization program and should not expect that a small advantage in the field of nuclear weapons will prevent China from using such weapons.” No weapons.”

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