The 2018 NPR significantly elevated their role, permitting use in response to vaguely defined “extreme circumstances,” such as cyber-attacks or attacks on the infrastructure of both the United States and its “allies and partners.” The review doubled down on Obama’s unconscionable 30-year trillion-dollar modernization of all parts of the nuclear arsenal. The actual cost looks to be closer to $1.7 trillion and climbing. To make matters worse, all eight other nuclear powers are undertaking their own modernizations, though on a far more modest scale. Russia, it should be noted, actually cut its defense spending this past year.
https://www.thenation.com/article/untold-history-of-the-united-states-rerelease/
