Thread by @jseldin

"Strategic deterrence ... if that fails, nothing else in the department of Defense works as planned" @US_Stratcom Commander Adm Charles Richard tells Senate Armed Services Committee, warning of danger from nuclear #Russia & #China

#China "at some kind of an inflection point... well ahead of the pace to double their [nuclear] stockpile by the end of the decade" per @US_Stratcom's Adm Charles

"In the very near term China will possess a credible nuclear triad"

"#Russia remains the pacing nuclear threat" warns @US_Stratcom's Adm Charles, saying #Moscow's nuclear modernization is 80% complete, while the US is still at zero

.@US_Stratcom commander warns the US operational margin "at risk of losing credibility in the eyes of our adversaries"

"We could reach a point where no amount of money could mitigate the operational risk we could be facing"

#nukes #China #Russia

More from @US_Stratcom
Cmdr Adm Charles Richard from earlier this year:

https://twitter.com/jseldin/status/1356707996487856129?s=20

#China has more than 400 satellites in space & is building rapidly, including anti-satellite weapons, @US_SpaceCom Commander Gen James Dickinson tells SASC lawmakers

#Russia has 200 satellites in orbit & could double that by 2030, he adds

Nuclear worries - "I cannot deter with the leftovers of the Cold War forever into the future" per @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard

"I need weapon systems that will actually work & will actually make it to the target"

.@US_Stratcom's Adm Richard says his command "repeatedly trying to pull rabbits out of a hat" to keep some nuclear weapon systems going

"We eventually need to get new stuff"

"I'll take all I can get" @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard says of arms control agreements, provided they are verifiable

"We have exhausted the operational margin to delay" @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard says of nuclear modernization

"You're counting now on more & more things having to go right...that is a standard we have never allowed in our history"

No first use for nukes? @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard says "it will diminish" strategic deterrence if adopted and that "it will have no more credibility" than current policies

.@US_SpaceCom tracking on an average day "32,000 pieces of debris, satellites" per Gen. Dickinson

"We were pleased" w/the #NewSTART treaty, per @US_Stratcom Commander, Adm Richard

US nuclear triad - "We don't have a triad day to day" per per @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard "The bombers are not available to us. We chose to take them off alert as a type of peace dividend after the Cold War. So, day to day all you have is basically a diad"

"If you don't have intercontinental ballistic missiles, we can't meet that criteria. You are completely dependent on the submarine leg" per @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard "I've already told the secretary of defense that under those conditions I would request to realert the bombers"

If US loses the ICBM leg of the nuclear triad, "you will have solved a problem that they [#China] can't currently solve right now" per @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard

"If I was to build a list of the top five things the US could do to accelerate #China becoming a strategic peer of ours, number 1 or number 2 on the list is to get rid of our ICBMs" per @US_Stratcom's Adm Richard