If the U.S. detected one or two incoming ballistic missiles that could be nuclear-armed, the Air Force general in charge of America’s nuclear arsenal told Congress Tuesday that he would recommend the U.S. hold its fire until the missiles landed or were shot down.
Gen. John Hyten, the head of the U.S. Strategic Command, was answering a question during testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee about whether a low-yield weapon launched from a U.S. submarine might spark an all-out nuclear war because an adversary would not be able to tell if it was carrying a larger warhead.
Hyten said an adversary would have only 30 minutes to react, and would likely not launch an immediate counterstrike.
“If somebody does detect that launch it will see a single missile or maybe two missiles coming. They will realize it’s not an existential threat to their country, and therefore they don’t have to respond with an existential threat,” Hyten said. “That’s what I would recommend if I saw that coming against the United States.”
But in discussing the U.S. plan to swap out high-yield warheads for a low-yield version on a small number of missiles, he said the objective of the program is deterrence, not fighting a nuclear war.
“The first use of that weapon is to make sure that nobody uses that kind of weapon against us,” Hyten said. “If we do have to respond, we want to respond in kind and not further escalate the conflict out of control.
“An adversary, Russia in this case, will see a weapon coming,” Hyten continued. “They’ll see it coming, but they don’t have to respond right now, and they won’t have time to respond because they won’t want to commit suicide.”
