For Better or For Worse: The Future of C3I Entanglement
James Acton | Nautilus Institute/Technology for Global Security
In a conventional conflict between the United States and China or Russia, each belligerent might attack the other’s command, control, communication, and intelligence (C3I) capabilities to gain a warfighting advantage. However, because a number of C3I assets are dual-use, such attacks would degrade the target’s nuclear command-and-control system, creating serious risks of inadvertent escalation. Looking forward, at least four factors will influence the severity of the risks created by such entanglement.
Kim Orders North Korea Artillery Firing, Drawing Seoul Rebuke
Foster Klug | AP
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un ordered his troops to practice firing artillery near a disputed sea boundary with rival South Korea, Pyongyang’s state media reported Monday, drawing a quick rebuke from Seoul. It was the latest sign of impatience from Kim amid worries that nearly two years of U.S.-North Korean diplomacy will fall apart if Washington doesn’t meet Pyongyang’s year-end deadline to offer a new initiative to settle their long-running standoff over the North’s nuclear weapons program. The islet where the recent drills took place is just north of the de facto inter-Korean maritime boundary, the scene of several bloody naval skirmishes between the rivals. South Korea’s Defense Ministry expressed regret over the latest drills, saying they violated deals settled between the Koreas last year that looked to lower military animosities along the border.
Russia Shows Off Hypersonic Nuclear Missile to U.S. Inspectors
Moscow Times
Russia said it has showed its new hypersonic nuclear missile system to U.S. inspectors as part of a bilateral arms control treaty ahead of the missile’s deployment, Interfax reported Tuesday. President Vladimir Putin said late last year that Russia would be ready to deploy the Avangard missile system in one year’s time. One of several new weapons announced in 2018, the Avangard was touted as a highly maneuverable weapon able to evade the United States’ missile defense systems. The Defense Ministry staged a demo of the Avangard system to a U.S. inspection group that visited Russia on Nov. 24-26, Interfax reported. “The Russian side held a demonstration to help ensure the viability and effectiveness of the [New] START Treaty,” the Russian military was quoted as saying, adding that it plans to put Avangard into combat duty before the end of the year.
NATO Shows Off Missile Base in Romania, Calling it ‘Purely Defensive’
Alison Mutler | RFE/RL
NATO’s land-based missile defense system in southern Romania has been a bone of contention between the alliance and Russia since it began operations at the start of 2016. Russia claims the facility, along with a similar NATO base in Poland, are meant to undermine Moscow’s nuclear deterrent. But now, ahead of NATO’s December 3-4 summit in London, the alliance has opened the facility at Romania’s Military Base 99 for a tour by a group of journalists and ambassadors to Romania from 20 NATO members states. The November 19 visit marked the first time a group of civilians has been given a formal tour of the Aegis Ashore land-based defense system at the town of Deveselu, about 180 kilometers west of Bucharest. Romanian Defense Minister Nicolae Ciuca said the tour was an initiative in “transparency” that demonstrates the $1 billion facility has “a purely defensive nature.”
Pope Francis, In Visit to Hiroshima, Says Possession of Nuclear Weapons Is ‘Immoral’
Laurel Wamsley | NPR
On the first full day of his tour of Japan, Pope Francis visited Hiroshima and Nagasaki and delivered a clear message: possessing or deploying atomic weapons is immoral. “Peace and international stability are incompatible with attempts to build upon the fear of mutual destruction, or the threat of total annihilation,” Francis said in an address in Nagasaki. He spoke at the site where the United States exploded an atomic bomb in 1945, killing 74,000 people by the end of that year. The pontiff specifically lamented the degradation of international arms control treaties. In August, the U.S. pulled out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, saying Moscow had violated the terms of the agreement.
Nicola Sturgeon to Press Corbyn to Scrap UK’s Nuclear Deterrent
Severin Carrell | Guardian
Nicola Sturgeon will press Jeremy Corbyn to scrap the UK’s nuclear deterrent in any talks on Scottish National party support for a minority Labour government. The SNP leader said abandoning Trident would be a key issue in any post-election talks with Labour, alongside supporting a second independence referendum, abolishing the universal credit benefits system and devolving immigration policy to Holyrood. In an article for the Guardian Sturgeon attacked Corbyn for abandoning his longstanding opposition to nuclear weapons in favour of supporting Trident and its replacement by a new system, based at Faslane submarine base on the Clyde. The SNP made removal of Trident from Faslane a totemic issue in the 2014 independence referendum campaign.