From Abel Romero, RealClearDefense: “Over the weekend, the United States and Japan completed the first intercept test of the Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) Block IIA. SM-3 Block IIA is being developed cooperatively by the United States and Japan to defeat ballistic missiles up to the intermediate-range and features several upgrades that improve upon previous variants. This test not only demonstrates a significant increase in U.S. missile defense capability but an outstanding example of cooperation with a critical ally. The SM-3 Block IIA project represents the best case study of equal funding and engineering on a missile defense system that will benefit both the United States and Japan.”
From Aaron R. Miles, RealClearDefense: “Strategic arms control will soon reach a point where it must be adapted or abandoned as a core element of the U.S.-Russian security relationship. A new approach based on adaptive warhead limits offers a way for the United States to re-engage Russia on previous calls for further reductions in deployed strategic warheads. Adaptive warhead limits would allow the United States to account for Russian concerns without changing U.S. policy on ballistic missile defense (BMD). Notionally, the treaty would limit each side’s deployed nuclear stockpile to the larger of 1000 warheads or 10 times the number of BMD interceptors deployed by the other as part of its national missile defense system. In addition to providing a possible path to further nuclear warhead reductions, this initiative would strengthen strategic stability and provide increased transparency regarding missile defense programs."
Blackmail Under a Nuclear Umbrella
From Paul Bracken, War on the Rocks: “The idea of nuclear blackmail fascinated analysts early in the atomic age. It offered an especially vivid nightmare scenario: Some new Hitler demanding concessions but this time armed with nuclear weapons. Hitler’s cold-blooded demands backed with force made Britain and France back down in one crisis after another in the Rhineland, Austria, and Czechoslovakia. The first generation of strategists thought that a “nuclear Hitler” would present nearly impossible challenges to the West. Fortunately, such fears never materialized in the Cold War, as the superpowers lacked the daring drive of the Fuëhrer. They were much more conservative and cautious.”