Key Points and Summary – President Trump has “created a stir” by suggesting the U.S. may resume nuclear weapons testing for the first time since its 1992 moratorium, a “provocative” move. -This is seen as a reaction to Russian “doomsday” weapons tests (like the Poseidon torpedo) and “perceived” low-yield tests by Russia and China, which […]

Is the United States about to start testing nuclear weapons again? Recent comments by United States President Trump suggested that he is strongly considering testing nuclear warheads in response to real and perceived tests by other nuclear powers.

These comments left many confused about the future of US policy and the state of intelligence on adversary nuclear programs.

So what’s going on? As is often the case, President Trump seems to prize unpredictability.

We don’t know what’s going to happen, but it wouldn’t hurt to review where we’ve been.

  • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    17 hours ago

    Strongman bullshit of course? The reason we stopped testing these things in the first place is because the US and USSR both realised at pretty much the same time after the first couple of hydrogen bomb tests that you can basically nest stages indefinetaly for exponentially higher yields. The escalating tests had to stop for the sake of not fucking everything by setting off devices in the hundreds of megaton to gigaton range. (Also larger devices get less efficient surface coverage than just using multiple smaller bombs.)