【英文】美国与中国和俄罗斯的竞争：危机驱动下的美国战略改变需求（84页）

It should be stressed in making these points, that nuclear modernization – hopefully coupled with effective nuclear arms control – remains critical to assuring that mutual assured destruction (MAD) is preserved while also assuring that the U.S. will not lose its massive nuclear edge over rogue  nuclear powers like North Korea. The fact that the U.S. needs to give more priority to competing  in gray area and hybrid warfare at lower levels of conflict and also deal with the impact of the  Coronavirus crisis does not mean it can back away from nuclear competition. The problem with the current U.S. strategies and defense plans dealing with Chinese and Russian competition is not  being able to recognize the primacy that should be given to other aspects of competition, gray area  operations, and different types of conflict. Chart Three illustrates this continuing need for modernization by providing a snapshot of recent  Chinese and Russian nuclear modernization.

This charts only covers past steps, and both China  and Russia have since announced major new areas of modernization. Particularly in the case of  Russia, some announcements like the focus on hypersonic weapons and a long-range submersible  nuclear strike system seem to be designed to imply that Russia is taking the lead in dramatic new  areas, while Russia is also more quietly modernizing the rest of its delivery forces. In the case of China, it is deploying MIRV’d ICBM’s for the first time, constructing a new nuclear  capable bomber, deploying new dual-capable missiles, and making major increases in its still  limited inventory of nuclear weapons for the first time in years. These trends have recently been  reflected in the Chinese news articles, which publicly discusses the need for an increase to 1,000  warheads and a stockpile of 100 DF-41 ICBM’s with MIRV’d warheads.