Sébastien Roblin: While China’s demonstrated fixation with developing new flavors of nuclear weaponry isn’t good news, alarmists are missing the broader context. - NBCNewsTHINK
Soviet Union once deployed
a similar “fractional orbital” nuclear weapon in the 1970s. But the Soviets ended up abandoning the effort because they decided it wasn’t that useful, in part because it was slower and less accurate than regular nuclear missiles and designed primarily to overcome defenses the U.S. didn’t end up using.
Admittedly, China’s melding of the two technologies is novel and imparts a range boost, but the orbital weapon’s launch flash would be detected by U.S. space-based sensors, just as with any other ballistic missile. That means that China still couldn’t hope to prevail by a surprise nuclear attack and that the end result is the same as it was before: an unacceptable degree of mutually assured destruction.
It’s important to keep in mind that Beijing’s more aggressive nuclear posture is at least in part a reactionary decision to Washington’s move two decades ago to begin building a missile defense system capable of stopping a few dozen intercontinental nuclear missiles from the likes of North Korea or Iran but which China sees as protection that could embolden a U.S. attack.
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