US President Donald Trump has urged military leaders to resume nuclear weapons testing to keep up with other nuclear powers such as China and Russia, the BBC reports.
Before meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Trump wrote on social media that he had ordered the War Department to begin nuclear weapons tests because of other countries’ nuclear testing programs. The US president also said that the Americans have more nuclear weapons than any other country.
Trump’s statement came just days after he condemned Russia for its nuclear missile tests. In his post, he acknowledged that nuclear weapons have enormous destructive power, but that there is no other choice but to update the US arsenal. The president also said China’s nuclear program would catch up with the United States within five years. He did not elaborate on how the tests would be conducted, but said the process would begin immediately.
The US president’s remarks mark a clear shift in national policy. The US has not conducted nuclear weapons tests since then-President George HW Bush issued a moratorium in 1992 to end the Cold War.
After meeting with Xi, Trump said the test sites would be chosen later,
but reiterated that it was only appropriate for the US to conduct tests on a par with other countries.
Russia reported successful tests of two weapons over the weekend that can also carry nuclear warheads. One is a missile that can bypass US defenses, and the other is a Poseidon underwater drone that can strike the US West Coast. However, no nuclear weapons were used in those tests.
According to the US Center for Strategic and International Studies, China has doubled its nuclear arsenal in the past five years, and the number of Chinese nuclear weapons is expected to exceed 1,000 by 2030. The US has about 5,225 nuclear warheads, while Russia has 5,580.
The last US nuclear weapons test took place underground in Nevada on the 23rd of September, 1992. It was the 1,054th test conducted by the US. The Nevada Test Site is located 105 kilometers from Las Vegas and is still operated by the US government, and can be reopened if necessary. The US is the only country in the world to have actually used nuclear weapons in warfare, dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima during World War II.
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