Former Pentagon official Gregory Weaver, who served as the principal nuclear and missile defense advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote an article published on NATO's website arguing that counter to Moscow's long-standing nuclear doctrine, Russia may use tactical nuclear weapons either to stave off a battlefield defeat or bring about a swift victory to a conventional conflict, such as that in Ukraine. "In such a scenario, the Russian military leadership would assume that the West would not respond in kind, for fear that the situation would escalate uncontrollably to a large-scale U.S.-Russia homeland exchange," he predicted.

Amid all of this, he pointed out that America should not fear nuclear war, rather, it must embrace it and start prepping. He said NATO should equip its fighter jets and submarines with tactical nuclear weapons to deter a tactical Russian strike, and "convince Russian leadership that NATO is fully prepared to counter limited nuclear first use with militarily effective nuclear responses of our own."