The United States must be prepared for the possibility of simultaneous war with Russia and China. This is stated by relationship of 145 pages of Strategic Posture Commission (Strategic Planning Commission) of the US Congress.
“Today, the United States is on the verge of surfacing not one, but two nuclear-armed adversaries, each with ambitions to change the international status quo by force if necessary. This is a situation that the United States did not foresee and for which it is not prepared", say the authors of the report.
A source senior of Reuters involved in the report noted that the United States is considering the possibility of two wars, because there could be "maximum coordination" between Russia and China. She declined to say whether U.S. intelligence is aware of cooperation between the two countries on nuclear weapons.
The authors of the report believe that threats from China and Russia will worsen in the period 2027-2035, so decisions must be made now. The United States and its allies must be prepared to deter and defeat both adversaries simultaneously, the report said.
The Congressional Strategic Planning Commission has proposed that US authorities build conventional weapons and expand nuclear weapons modernization programs, despite “budgetary realities.”
As Reuters notes, in general the report contradicts the position of US President Joe Biden, who believes that the current US nuclear arsenal is sufficient to deter the combined forces of Russia and China.
The purpose of the Congressional Strategic Planning Commission, created in 2022, is to assess long-term threats to the United States and develop recommendations for changes to the country's conventional and nuclear forces.
“The United States and its allies must be prepared to deter and defeat both adversaries simultaneously”, the Strategic Posture Commission said. “The international order led by the United States and the values it supports are put at risk by the Chinese and Russian authoritarian regimes”.
Congress in 2022 created a commission of six Democrats and six Republicans to assess long-term threats to the United States and recommend changes in U.S. conventional and nuclear forces.
The Commission accepted a Pentagon forecast that the rapid expansion of China's nuclear arsenal is likely to give it 1.500 nuclear warheads by 2035, becoming – for the first time – a second major rival for the nuclear-armed United States.
Chinese and Russian threats will become acute in the 2027-2035 period, then “decisions must be made now so that the nation is prepared”, the report states.
The document also underlines that the thirty-year nuclear weapons modernization program of the United States, which began in 2010 and which according to 2017 estimates will cost around 400 billion dollars by 2046, must be fully financed to update all warheads, systems launch and infrastructure on schedule.
Other recommendations include deploying more tactical nuclear weapons in Asia and Europe, developing plans to deploy some or all of America's reserve nuclear warheads, and producing more B-21 stealth bombers and new nuclear-class submarines. Columbia beyond the numbers now planned.
The commission also called for increasing the “size, type, and posture” of U.S. and allied conventional forces. If such measures are not taken, the United States will “likely” have to increase its reliance on nuclear weapons, the report says.
