FILE PHOTO: National flags of Russia and the U.S. fly at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, Russia April 11, 2017. "Our strategy will ensure Russia understands that any use of nuclear weapons, however limited, is unacceptable," the document, known as the Nuclear Posture Review, said.The rationale for building up new nuclear capabilities, U.S. officials said, is that Russia currently perceives the United States' nuclear posture and capabilities as inadequate.By expanding its own low-yield nuclear capability, the United States would deter Russia from using nuclear weapons, U.S. officials argue.Low-yield nuclear weapons, while still devastating, have a strength of less than 20 kilotons. "Weaver said the most difficult task for those working on the review was trying to address the gap between Russian and American non-strategic nuclear weapons.Russia has a stockpile of 2,000 non-strategic nuclear weapons, according to the Pentagon. officials argue that since the last nuclear review, Russia has expanded and modernized its non-strategic nuclear weapons, annexed Crimea in 2014, and deployed a ground-launched cruise missile that breaches the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty. "If we put nuclear weapons on cruise missiles and we launch conventional cruise missiles, how does Russia know that they are conventional?"

Source: Egypt Today February 02, 2018 21:45 UTC