The Pentagon is drafting a new nuclear weapon strategy for a regional war with China or Russia, a shift that would give shorter-range tactical weapons a larger role in crisis planning. Elbridge Colby, the deputy secretary of defense for policy, is overseeing the effort.
The plans were described by five people familiar with the matter and reported on August 5. The emerging framework would revise the retaliatory nuclear options presented to the US president during a crisis, with the stated aim of preventing a conventional war from turning into a nuclear one and denying an adversary any advantage in a nuclear conflict.
Elbridge Colby and Nebraska
Colby favors a larger role for tactical nuclear weapons and argues that adversaries already understand that the US is prepared to use such weapons. He planned to present his proposals on Wednesday at a closed military event in Nebraska during a visit to US Strategic Command.
The strategy remains internal planning rather than an adopted policy. Trump and the Pentagon have previously stated that the US must simultaneously counter two nuclear rivals in China and Russia, and that broader posture has pushed the review toward scenarios in which regional fighting could force faster presidential decisions on nuclear options.
Europe, NATO and deterrence
Several eastern-flank NATO members, including Poland and the Baltic states, have signaled interest in hosting US nuclear weapons. Earlier decisions to cancel planned deployments and redirect military assets toward Asia unsettled European capitals, which fear gaps in the continent's deterrence.
After the last strategic arms control treaty between Washington and Moscow lapsed in February 2026, Trump and his administration signaled they were weighing the deployment of additional nuclear weapons and some form of nuclear testing. The reassessment has also become more urgent for allies because the Defense Department's watchlist names 130 organizations and institutions across China, Russia, and Iran as threats to US national security.
Some specialists told that a larger tactical role could weaken deterrence by making the threat of a large-scale nuclear strike appear less credible, and could leave US forces less prepared for a full nuclear exchange in some scenarios. The next signal to watch is whether Colby turns those ideas into specific changes to the president's options, or leaves the new strategy as a broader warning to China and Russia.
