An unintentional nuclear conflict is possible between the United States and Russia, and, less likely, China, writes The National Interest.
The American magazine notes that in the listed countries, command systems responsible for command, communications, control and intelligence, which previously tracked exclusively the use of nuclear ballistic missiles by the enemy, are now monitoring the launches of non-nuclear weapons.
“Until the mid-1980s, for example, US early warning satellites were used exclusively to detect the launch of nuclear-armed missiles. Today they enable a variety of non-nuclear missions, for example, by providing information on missile defense related to intercepting conventional ballistic missiles,”writes James Acton of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (USA) in International Security magazine.
TNI believes that Russia's attack on such satellites may be perceived by the United States as a signal of the start of a nuclear war. "Russia, China and the United States are likely to give up the costs of separating their nuclear and non-nuclear control systems and assets," the newspaper writes.
TNI concludes that “missile defense systems have become common targets,” but an attack on such systems can still be interpreted as the start of a nuclear war.
