The United States should get ready to again test nuclear weapons at the Nevada National Security Site if former President Donald Trump (R) wins reelection in November, according to conservative policy document released last week.
In a list of “needed reforms,” Project 2025’s Mandate for Leadership, a conservative policy blueprint written by former Trump administration advisers, said that restoring “readiness to test nuclear weapons at the Nevada National Security Site [will] ensure the ability of the U.S. to respond quickly to asymmetric technology surprises.
“China is pursuing a strategic breakout of its nuclear forces, significantly shifting the nuclear balance and forcing the U.S. to learn how to deter two nuclear peer competitors (China and Russia) simultaneously for the first time in its history,” according to the document, which listed Iran and North Korea as threats as well.
The U.S. has not tested nuclear weapons at full yield since 1992 and has only conducted subcritical, zero-yield experiments in a self-imposed moratorium that roughly mirrors the provisions of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which the country has not ratified.
The U.S. does occasionally host diplomats at the Nevada site to “learn about U.S. support for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and the moratorium on nuclear explosive testing,” the National Nuclear Security Administration wrote in a post to the website X.
Media have reported that Trump disavows any connection to Project 2025, even though many of his former advisers are involved with the project.
Trump’s former national security adviser Robert O’brien, wrote in the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs that the United States to return to nuclear testing, did not appear to be among the document’s authors.
The document also said the U.S. should “transform” NATO so that U.S. allies can field their own military capabilities while still “relying on the United States primarily for our nuclear deterrent.”
Other agenda items of note in the document included:
- Accelerating timelines for deploying the nuclear-armed Sentinel missiles, B-21 bombers, Columbia-class ballistic missile submarines, and the F-35 aircraft.
- Rejecting extensions of Minuteman III’s service life.
- Funding warhead life extension programs for B61-12, W80-4, W87-1 Mod, and W88 Alt 370.
- Maintaining plutonium pit production at Los Alamos and Savannah River as a key element of producing warheads.
- Developing the sea-launched nuclear cruise missile.