ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a new military force that depends strongly upon nuclear weapons - particularly low yield nuclear weapons - and the influencing products of modern technology. It describes a force which is an extreme limit of a defensive conventional force. The chapter addresses the premise for the New Nuclear Force and gives attention on the defensive nuclear force and the kind of conventional and nuclear weapons it would require. The general military and political features of the new nuclear force which must be considered by the country are outlined: force element independence, force objectives, force invulnerability, deterrence, threat independence, responsiveness, research and development, and arms control requirements. The real world constraints on the design of the force can be of overriding proportions in determining the premise for the force. These pressures are composed of a combination of constraints both internal and external to a country’s boundaries.
