Why Putin’s ‘Tactical’ Nuclear Threats Raise Alarm: QuickTake

A distinctive feature of Russian military policy is an express willingness to introduce nuclear weapons into an otherwise conventional war. That helps explain why President Vladimir Putin’s saber-rattling about his nuclear arsenal since launching war on Ukraine in February 2022 has been so worrisome. What’s of particular concern with Russia is its posture on so-called tactical, or nonstrategic, nuclear weapons.

“Tactical” is an inexact term for a nuclear weapon that could be used within a theater of war. That generally means it has a less powerful warhead (the explosive head of a missile, rocket or torpedo) and is delivered at a shorter range — by mines, artillery, cruise missiles or bombs dropped by aircraft — than the “strategic” nuclear weapons the US and Russia could launch at each other’s homeland using intercontinental ballistic missiles. Arms control accords between the US and the Soviet Union (and later between the US and Russia) starting in the 1970s focused mostly on the number of strategic nuclear weapons, not tactical ones.