Tactical nuclear weapon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
recoilless gun
, one of the smallest nuclear weapons ever made.

A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW)[1] is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territory. Generally smaller in explosive power, they are defined in contrast to strategic nuclear weapons, which are designed mostly to be targeted at the enemy interior far away from the war front against military bases, cities, towns, arms industries, and other hardened or larger-area targets to damage the enemy's ability to wage war. As of 2024, no tactical nuclear weapons have ever been used in combat.

Details

Tactical nuclear weapons include

suitcase nukes), such as the Special Atomic Demolition Munition and the Davy Crockett recoilless rifle (recoilless smoothbore gun) have been developed, but the difficulty of combining sufficient yield with portability could limit their military utility. In wartime, such explosives could be used for demolishing "chokepoints" to enemy offensives, such as at tunnels, narrow mountain passes, and long viaducts
.

There is no exact definition of the "tactical" category in terms of range or

NPT-compliant South Korea, there have been calls to request a return of US-owned and -operated, short range, low yield nuclear weapons (called "tactical" by the US military) to provide a local strategic deterrent to the North's growing domestically-produced nuclear arsenal and delivery systems.[4]

Some tactical nuclear weapons have specific features meant to enhance their battlefield characteristics, such as variable yield, which allow their explosive power to be varied over a wide range for different situations, or enhanced radiation weapons (the so-called "neutron bombs"), which are meant to maximize ionizing radiation exposure and to minimize blast effects.

Strategic missiles and bombers are assigned preplanned targets including enemy airfields, radars, and surface-to-air defenses, not only counterforce strikes on hardened or wide area bomber, submarine, and missile bases. The strategic mission is to eliminate the enemy nation's national defenses to enable following bombers and missiles to threaten the enemy nation's strategic forces, command, and economy more realistically, rather than targeting mobile military assets in nearly real time by using tactical weapons that are optimized for time-sensitive strike missions that are often close to friendly forces.[5]

Tactical nuclear weapons were a large part of the peak

nuclear weapons stockpile levels during the Cold War.

US scientists with a full-scale cut-away model of the W48
, a very small tactical nuclear weapon with an explosive yield equivalent to 72 tons of TNT (0.072 kiloton). Around 100 of such shells were produced during the Cold War.

The risk that use of tactical nuclear weapons could unexpectedly lead to a rapid escalation of a war to full use of strategic weapons has led to proposals being made within NATO and other organizations to place limitations on—and make more transparent—the stockpiling and use of tactical weapons. As the Cold War

Russian Federation warheads in 2021, although estimates for Russia vary widely.[6]

Yield

The yield varies for a tactical nuclear weapon from a fraction of a

kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons.[7] In comparison, a strategic nuclear weapon has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton, with much larger warheads available.[7]

Risk of escalating a conflict

Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents may carry a significant danger of escalating the conflict beyond anticipated boundaries, from the tactical to the

kilotons
.

Soviet OTR-21 Tochka missile. Capable of firing a 100 kiloton nuclear warhead a distance of 185 km
American MGR-3 Little John missile, measuring 4.4. meters long with a diameter of 32 cm and a weight of 350 kg. Capable of firing a W45 warhead (10 kiloton yield) a distance of 19 km
French Pluton missile circa 1970s. Capable of firing a 15 kiloton nuclear warhead a distance of 120 km

The use of tactical nuclear weapons presents a risk of escalating the conflict until it reaches a tipping point that provokes the use of

ICBMs. Additionally, the tactical nuclear weapons most likely to be used first (i.e., the smallest, low-yield weapons such as nuclear artillery dating from the 1960s) have usually been under less stringent political control at times of military combat crises than strategic weapons.[16] Early Permissive action links (PALs) could be as simple as a mechanical combination lock.[17] If a relatively junior officer in control of a small tactical nuclear weapon (e.g., the M29 Davy Crockett
) were in imminent danger of being overwhelmed by enemy forces, he could request permission to fire it and, due to decentralized control of warhead authorization, his request might quickly be granted during a crisis.

For these reasons, stockpiles of tactical nuclear warheads in most countries' arsenals have been dramatically reduced c. 2010, and the smallest types have been completely eliminated.[18] Additionally, the increased sophistication of "Category F" PAL mechanisms and their associated communications infrastructure mean that centralized control of tactical nuclear warheads (by the country's most senior political leaders) can now be retained, even during combat.

Some variable yield nuclear warheads such as the B61 nuclear bomb have been produced in both tactical and strategic versions. Whereas the lowest selectable yield of a tactical B61 (Mod 3 and Mod 4) is 0.3 kilotons (300 tons),[19] modern PAL mechanisms ensure that centralized political control is maintained over each weapon, including their destructive yields.

With the introduction of the B61 Mod 12, the United States will have four hundred identical nuclear bombs whose strategic or tactical nature will be set purely by the mission and target as well as type of aircraft on which they are carried.[20]

According to several reports, including by the

Kosovo conflict in what amounted to strategic destruction once only possible with nuclear weapons or massive bombing, Vladimir Putin, then-secretary of Security Council of Russia, formulated a concept ("escalate to de-escalate") of using both tactical and strategic nuclear threats and strikes to de-escalate or cause an enemy to disengage from a conventional conflict threatening what Russia considers a strategic interest.[21][22][23] The lowered threshold for use of nuclear weapons by Russia is disputed by other experts.[24][25]

Treaty control

Ten NATO member countries have advanced a confidence-building plan for NATO and Russia that could lead to treaties to reduce the tactical nuclear weapons in Europe.[26]

As of 2012, NATO was moving forward with a plan to upgrade its tactical nuclear weapons with precision guidance that would make them equivalent to strategic weapons in effects against hardened targets, and to carry them on stealth aircraft that are much more survivable against current air defenses.[27]

Speculation on use in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Main article:
Nuclear threats during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, there has been constant speculation about whether Russia's president Vladimir Putin will use a tactical nuclear weapon either against Ukraine or in a demonstration strike over unpopulated areas, given that the course of the war does not seem favorable to what the Kremlin anticipated, and several members of the Russian government have threatened the use of nuclear weapons.[28][29][30][31]

On 25 March 2023, President Putin announced the stationing of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. Russia would maintain control of the weapons. As of May 2023 the weapons are a small number of

Iskander missile warheads. Russia plans to finish a “storage facility” for tactical nuclear weapons by July 1. President Putin told Russian state television: "There is nothing unusual here either…Firstly, the United States has been doing this for decades. They have long deployed their tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of their allied countries."[32] In December 2023, Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko announced that the nuclear weapons deliveries were completed that October.[33][34]

In May 2024, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would be holding drills with tactical nuclear weapons, days after responding to comments from senior Western officials.[35]

Examples

Upshot-Knothole Grable nuclear artillery test

See also

References

  1. ^ Hans M Kristensen. "Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons (page 8)" (PDF). FAS. Retrieved October 26, 2013.
  2. ISBN 978-1-57488-585-9
    . Retrieved March 22, 2011.
  3. ^ Some weapons could be tactical or strategic at the same time, depending only on the potential enemy. For example, an Indian nuclear missile with a 500 km range is tactical when it is evaluated by Russia but understandably would be considered strategic if evaluated by Pakistan.
  4. ^ "Not a Good Idea: American Nukes in South Korea". thediplomat.com. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  5. ^ "Strategic Air Command Declassifies Nuclear Target List from 1950s". nsarchive.gwu.edu. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  6. ^ Amy F. Woolf (July 15, 2021). Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons (PDF) (Report). Congressional Research Service. p. i. Retrieved July 23, 2021.
  7. ^ a b Rathbun, Nina Srinivasan (September 28, 2022). "What are tactical nuclear weapons? An international security expert explains and assesses what they mean for the war in Ukraine". The Conversation. Retrieved July 30, 2023.
  8. ^ "Session 10". Archived from the original on May 1, 2001.
  9. ISBN 978-0-8223-0819-5
    . Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  10. ^ "Getting to Zero Starts Here: Tactical Nuclear Weapons | Arms Control Association". armscontrol.org. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  11. ISBN 978-0-415-07863-4
    . Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  12. ^ "Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Educational Foundation for Nuclear Science, Inc.: 25 1975.
  13. ^ "Pugwash Meeting no. 270 - Workshop on Tactical Nuclear Weapons". Archived from the original on August 16, 2002.
  14. ^ "Nuclear Threat Initiative | NTI". nti.org. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  15. ^ "CNS - Tactical Nuclear Weapons: The Nature of the Problem". Archived from the original on April 8, 2010.
  16. ^ Rock Island Arsenal atomictraveler.com
  17. ^ "Principles of Nuclear Weapons Security and Safety". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  18. ^ "Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces [INF] Chronology". fas.org. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  19. ^ a b "The B61 Bomb". nuclearweaponarchive.org. Retrieved August 16, 2016.
  20. ^ Kristensen, Hans. "B61 LEP: Increasing NATO Nuclear Capability and Precision Low-Yield Strikes." FAS, 15 June 2011.
  21. ^ Nikolai N. Sokov (March 13, 2013). "Why Russia calls a limited nuclear strike "de-escalation"". Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Archived from the original on November 11, 2014.
  22. ^ Elbridge Colby (February 26, 2016). "The Role of Nuclear Weapons in the U.S.-Russian Relationship". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
  23. ^ Russia's Nonstrategic Nuclear Weapons, by Dr. Jacob W. Kipp, Foreign Military Studies Office, Fort Leavenworth; published in Military Review May–June 2001
  24. ^ "The Myth of Russia's Lowered Nuclear Threshold". September 22, 2017.
  25. ^ "The Elusive Russian Nuclear Threshold". November 26, 2019.
  26. ^ Kristensen, Hans. "10 NATO Countries Want More Transparency for Non-Strategic Nuclear Weapons." Federation of American Scientists, 24 April 2011.
  27. ^ Kristensen, Hans M. "Germany and B61 Nuclear Bomb Modernization." FAS, 13 November 2012.
  28. ^ Ukraine war: Could Russia use tactical nuclear weapons? BBC (24/09/2022)
  29. ^ What if Vladimir Putin used nuclear weapons in Ukraine? Al Jazeera (24 Sep 2022)
  30. ^ Would Vladimir Putin let Russia lose in Ukraine before using his nuclear weapons? Grid (September 21, 2022)
  31. ^ 'This Is Not a Bluff.' Putin Raises Specter of Nuclear Weapons Following Battlefield Losses Time (SEPTEMBER 21, 2022)
  32. ^ Putin: Russia to station nuclear weapons in Belarus BBC (March 25, 2023)
  33. ^ "MSN". www.msn.com. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  34. ^ Wilmington, Fox (December 27, 2023). "Belarus claims to have received tactical nuclear weapons from ally Russia | Fox Wilmington WSFX-TV". foxwilmington.com. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  35. ^ "Russia announces nuclear weapon drills after angry exchange with senior Western officials". apnews.com. Retrieved May 6, 2024.
  36. ^ Usman Ansari (November 6, 2013). "Experts: Missile Test Firing Shows Development Complete". Archived from the original on November 8, 2013. Retrieved November 8, 2013.
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