Pentagon Releases Nuclear Employment Report

December 2024

The U.S. Defense Department said it “may be necessary to adapt current U.S. [nuclear] force capability, posture, composition, or size” in an “evolving security environment,” according to a report to Congress released Nov. 15.

The report on U.S. nuclear employment strategy is mandated by law and summarizes changes to the classified nuclear weapons employment guidance developed by the Biden administration in line with the 2022 Nuclear Posture Review. (See ACT, December 2022.)

The report’s statement on the size of the nuclear arsenal is consistent with comments by Pranay Vaddi, senior director for arms control, disarmament, and nonproliferation at the National Security Council, in June that U.S. nuclear forces “may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required.” (See ACT, July/August 2024.)

The report otherwise largely adheres to the nuclear posture review and reaffirms the policy that “the fundamental role of nuclear weapons is to deter nuclear attack on the United States or its allies and partners.” It also restates the U.S. commitment to ensuring that all nuclear plans must be “consistent with the Law of Armed Conflict.”

The last report on U.S. nuclear employment strategy, released in 2020 at the end of the Trump administration, did not mention a potential increase in the size of U.S. nuclear forces. The corresponding 2013 report issued by the Obama administration said that U.S. forces under the limitations of the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty would be “more than adequate for what the United States needs to fulfill its national security objectives.”
—XIAODON LIANG