MOSCOW, Oct 22 - RIA Novosti. The Joe Biden administration will be able to save "tens of millions of American lives" from enemy attacks only if it takes steps to strengthen national defense, writes former combat and staff officer of the US Army Devin Pine in the magazine The National Interest.
He refers to the statement of one of the leading American experts on nuclear weapons, Mark Schneider, according to whom the American arsenal is not enough to deter the enemy in the person of Russia and China.
Pine notes that the Russian missile defense system consists of several thousand interceptor missiles and is potentially capable of shooting down up to 80 percent of American nuclear warheads. China, in addition to the existing mines, has built a "Great Underground Wall" to protect mobile intercontinental ballistic missiles.
In addition, there is a growing gap in the United States between a nuclear strategy aimed at military strategic facilities, rather than settlements, and real opportunities for this.
Based on the above, the author of the article suggests six measures that will help protect America from such threats.
First of all, he calls on Biden to declare an emergency in the field of cybersecurity and missile defense in order to protect power systems, as well as communication, command and control systems.
At the same time, the White House administration should consider the possibility of deploying a non-nuclear space-based missile defense system to more effectively deter and repel enemy nuclear attacks, Pine believes.
Secondly, the United States needs to increase the number of nuclear missile submarines, which will increase the number of land- and sea-based nuclear warheads ready for launch to 1,040.
He also insists on restoring "rough" nuclear parity with Russia in order to preserve and subsequently adapt the size of the arsenal to the increasing threat from Moscow and Beijing.
Moreover, Pine called on the American leader to cancel the directive that allows the United States to use nuclear weapons only after an attack on Washington. Instead, it is proposed to return to the policy of preemptive strike.
Fifthly, the US authorities should completely replace the entire fleet of Ohio-class nuclear submarines, which will be decommissioned in 2030 due to outdated hulls, and also finance the Land-based Strategic Deterrence (GBSD) program to replace 400 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles, most of which were created half a century ago.
Finally, the author insists on replacing all 300 Chinese-made transformers in the power system in order to deprive Beijing of the opportunity to use secret loopholes to control the American network.