Extended Deterrence and Communicating Resolve

Abstract

American thinking about extended deterrence has always tended to focus on its nuclear-weapon capabilities.[1] It is no different today. The Strategic Posture Commission of the United States-a bipartisan commission appointed by Congress 'to examine and make recommendations with respect to the long-term strategic posture of the United States'-reached the following conclusion on the requirements needed to fulfill U.S. security guarantees to Japan: In Asia, extended deterrence relies heavily on the deployment of nuclear cruise missiles on some Los Angeles class attack submarines-the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile/Nuclear (TLAM/N). This capability will be retired in 2013 unless steps are taken to maintain it. U.S. allies in Asia are not integrated in the same way into nuclear planning and have not been asked to make commitments to delivery systems. In our work as a Commission it has become clear to us that some U.S. allies in Asia would be very concerned by TLAM/N retirement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2009
Accession Number
ADA534516

Entities

People

  • James M. Acton

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Counter WMD
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems
  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Asia
  • Attack Submarines
  • Cold War
  • Command And Control
  • Command And Control Systems
  • Cruise Missiles
  • Deterrence
  • Information Operations
  • Land Attack Missiles
  • Los Angeles Class
  • Middle East
  • Military Capabilities
  • North Korea
  • Nuclear Weapons
  • Security
  • United States
  • Weapons

Readers

  • Asian Economic Studies
  • Government and Public Administration Law.
  • Missile Defense Systems.