Restarting nuclear tests has just been ordered by President Trump, who previously invalidated the Treaty on Intermediate-Range Nuclear Weapons, signed in 1988 with the former Soviet Union and which led to the elimination, at a stroke, of 2,692 missiles.
As justification, the United States alleged violations by Russia.
The new tests will not provide more security, but will bring new risks and tensions and enormous waste of money. Each test can cost up to $20 million, not counting the bomb. So that?
Returning to nuclear weapons testing is adding error to error. When the tests were stopped in 1996, as part of the Cold War, more than 2,000 had been carried out, most of them unnecessary and without any benefit because, more than tests, they were demonstrations of force.
For 80 years, after the unfortunate lesson of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the feared nuclear weapons have been deterrents because their use is meaningless. In no case will the alleged attacker be able to liquidate all the nuclear power of the person attacked.
To explode a bomb from time to time or to display a new missile or nuclear torpedo and to place atomic warheads in countries where they do not exist, is to show off the power of destruction that one possesses and that will never be used because in return it will receive an equivalent response. Mutual assured destruction they call it. In colloquial terms, they call it suicide.
Currently, all nuclear countries have the so-called second strike capability, that is, they can respond to aggression at the same range. In addition, the superpowers (United States, Russia and China) that possess the nuclear triad (ground-based missiles, strategic aviation and nuclear submarines) have the possibility of launching second and third volleys, all without taking into account what may be in space.
Carrying out more tests adds fuel to the political fire and endangers peace, without militarily providing anything new.
According to reports, President Trump ordered the Pentagon to “immediately” restart nuclear tests, suspended since 1992, about which no details are known, although the “immediate” formula suggests that the United States has “something to prove” or show.
Obviously, it makes no sense to test any of the weapons or devices in service, an action that during the Cold War was called a “nuclear test” and which consisted of displays of force.
Between 1945 and until 1949, when the Soviet Union carried out its first atomic test, the United States exercised a nuclear monopoly. In 1961 the USSR detonated the Zar atomic bomb, the largest ever manufactured, with a power equivalent to 50 million tons of TNT and an immeasurable radioactive potential. The other news is that there was no military objective whose destruction would require such power.
In 1996, the Agreement for the Total Suspension of Nuclear Tests was adopted. Russia conducted its last nuclear test in 1990, the United States in 1992, and China in 1996.
It remains to be seen if, as Russia has done, which recently, in the context of military operations in Ukraine and with media coverage, has tested and put into service several nuclear devices, including the Oreshnik, Burevestnik and Poseidon missiles, a type of torpedo or drone launched from submarines with a nuclear charge and propulsion.
The Oreshnik, which in 2024 was tested (without an explosive charge) against an industrial facility in Ukraine intended for the production of missile technology. It is a hypersonic rocket, capable of carrying nuclear charges and reaching speeds of up to ten times that of sound, which makes it difficult to detect and shoot down. As announced, the deadly device is already being mass produced and has been incorporated into the troops’ equipment.
For its part, the Burevestnik is a weapon that challenges the imagination, since it is a missile powered by a nuclear reactor that serves as an engine that, due to the properties of the atomic fuel, could operate indefinitely. It follows that, carrying a nuclear charge, it can wander through space and travel unlimited distances, even circling the Earth several times and reaching the stratosphere.
However, it does not seem to be a weapon that stands out for its safety. In this case, it is not difficult to imagine the risks of a nuclear reactor in flight, in danger of being shot down, which raises problems of radioactivity with a reserved prognosis. Likewise, staying in the air for a long time at subsonic speeds exposes you to anti-aircraft fire.
Regarding the tests of the Poseidon launched from a submarine, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared that it was “an enormous success,” revealing that the device is “impossible to intercept.” As he said: “The power of the Poseidon far exceeds that of the most advanced Russian missile.” According to him: “There is nothing like it anywhere else in the world.”
For his part, the former president of Russia and current secretary of that country’s National Security Council, Dimitri Medvedev, usually thunderous, considered that: “Poseidon is a Doomsday weapon.”
In the arms race, the day after the first sword was swung, the first shield appeared and, when the first cannons came out of the factories, the first armor was created and for modern missiles, anti-missile shields emerged. In this area, ideas of exclusivity or net superiority are fantasies.
It is good to note that weapons are industrial products that cost a lot of money. Whoever has the best industry will have the best weapons and, to produce more, you need to spend more.
Regarding weapons, especially nuclear weapons: “Those in front don’t go far because those behind run well.” I promise to elaborate on the topic, unfortunately very topical. See you there.
*This text was originally published in the newspaper For this! It is reproduced with the express authorization of its author.
