* "So first, let's attempt to define exactly what a 'strategic' nuclear weapon is, which itself has been the subject of considerable debate. Yield, target, effect, and more have all been considered in the definition, but from a practical point of view, a strategic nuclear weapon is…well, it's one that's delivered
strategically. That means delivered via ICBMs, SLBMs, or heavy bombers.
"Tactical nuclear weapons, it follows, are those that are delivered using battlefield-type delivery systems over battlefield-type distances. However, since the size of a battlefield can vary greatly all we can really say is that they are not strategically-delivered. In locations such as Western Europe and the former Soviet satellite-states, the strategic-tactical issue might be considered a distinction without much of a difference.
* Non-strategic nuclear weapons are important to Russia because their nuclear doctrine values these weapons in the extreme: that‟s just what happens when your conventional forces cannot compete with many of your neighbors (Georgia excluded [which Russia successfully invaded in 2008]), let alone the US. Similarly, with a gross domestic product trailing the US, China, Japan, India, Germany, and the United Kingdom and a population rapidly trending downward, the only way Russia can be considered a superpower is through the prism of nuclear weapons. Russia's non-strategic nuclear weapons give it an asymmetric advantage with regard to China, NATO, and the US, just as they surely will for Iran if or when Iran should come to acquire the bomb.
(i) Mark Stout is a program director on "Master's 硕士 in Global Securities Studies" and senior lecturer at Johns Hopkins University.
(ii) The Diplomat https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Diplomat
(online news magazine; Founded 2001 in Australia; acquired in 2007 and headquarters moved to Tokyo)
(iii) Air University (United States Air Force) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_University_(United_States_Air_Force)
(is headquartered at Maxwell Air Force Base [in Montgomery, capital of], Alabama; The Wright Brothers established the first US civilian flying school in Montgomery, Alabama in 1910)
Section 7 External links carries an item "The Wright Stuff" whose link is a dud -- not working.
(iv) The Wright Stuff. https://twitter.com/au_wrightstuff
("Air University's bi-monthly electronic journal covering Department of Defense and national security issues")
(c)
(i) The 堡垒 in quotation (c) is "fortress" in English.
(ii) James R Holmes, Anti-Access and the 'Fortress-Fleet;' Why regional powers need not run a naval arms race with the United States. The Diplomat, September 2012 http://thediplomat.com/2012/09/a ... the-fortress-fleet/
two consecutive paragraphs:
"One of [Horatio] Nelson's biographers, Alfred Thayer Mahan, decried what he called the 'fortress–fleet,' the fleet that sheltered under the fort’s big guns for protection. This practice limited a navy’s freedom of maneuver to tiny sea areas. Worse, it neutered commanders, rendering them timid and defensive-minded. The Russian Navy sunkbyJapan in 1904-1905 was the fortress fleet par excellence.
But like Nelson, Mahan could never have foreseen today's long-range precision-guided weaponry. If Fortress China or Fortress Iran could use inexpensive shore-based weapons to clear adversaries from a massive offshore zone, think about what that would mean for its navy. Simple. It would render Mahan's critique moot. It would mean abundant liberty of action. No more playing defense underneath that protective shield.