This follows in the wake of some fast-moving developments in the nuclear-war field. If you haven't been following it: on the one hand, the US leadership is championing a trillion-dollar space-based missile defense for, quote, "forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland"—i.e. upending "Mutually Assured Destruction"[0,1]. In response (not an immediate response—this has been going back-and-forth since the US withdrew from the Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002), Russia just days ago test-flew a *nuclear-powered* subsonic cruise missile for 14,000 kilometers[2,3]. That machine's intended for delivering nuclear weapons to the US, in a way that putatively sidesteps the current ideas for missile defenses.

[0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/interactive/2025/m... ("Golden Dome missile defense system could cost over $1 trillion")

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Dome_(missile_defense_s... ("Golden Dome (missile defense system)")

[2] https://www.reuters.com/world/china/russia-tested-new-nuclea... ("Russia tested new nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile")

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik ("9M730 Burevestnik")