Nuclear weapons on move

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

“Poland’s President Andrzej Duda confirmed on Tuesday that Russia has begun shifting some short-range nuclear weapons to neighbouring Belarus, a move that he said will change the security architecture of the region . . .”

This worries me somewhat.

Since the US bombings of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, nuclear weapons have never been used in warfare.

A tactical (otherwise known as non-strategic) nuclear weapon is one that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations.

Their yield varies from a fraction of a kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons. Generally smaller in explosive power, they are defined in contrast to strategic nuclear weapons which are designed mostly to be targeted at the enemy interior, far away from the war front.

Use of tactical nuclear weapons against similarly-armed opponents may carry a significant danger of escalating the conflict beyond anticipated boundaries.

For decades the United States has deployed (to be used if needed) its tactical nuclear weapons on the territory of allied countries.

For the past two months I have been expressing my concerns here about the dangers of nuclear war. What do others think?

Bob Hughes