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Everything about First strike (nuclear strategy)

Preemptive attack using nuclear weapons

In nuclear strategy, a first strike or preemptive strike is a preemptive surprise attack employing overwhelming force. First strike capability is an attacking country's ability to significantly cripple another nuclear power's second strike retaliatory capacity. The preferred methodology is to attack the opponent's strategic nuclear weapon facilities, command and control sites, and storage depots first. The strategy is called counterforce. Wikipedia →

🧭 Start here: a 6-step reading path

  1. Read the overview: First strike (nuclear strategy)A 5-minute orientation
  2. Skim a recent paper: Ship-strike forecast and mitigation for whales in Gitga’at First Nation territoryInfluential work since 2022
  3. Pick up a classic book: Radiant AngelThe most-reprinted book on the subject
  4. Read the landmark paper: First Strike–Second Strike Strategies in Metastatic Cancer: Lessons from the Evolutionary Dynamics of ExtinctionCited 67 times
  5. Go sideways: CounterforceA closely related topic
  6. Go sideways: LGM-118 PeacekeeperA closely related topic

📖 Definitions

Noun An attack (typically nuclear) launched without warning in the absence of a prior attack by one's opponent, with the intention of destroying one's opponent's ability to retaliate.

Noun A first offense by a lawbreaker, as counted by a three-strikes law.

Noun One of the first few coins struck from a new set of dies.

🗂️ The subject at a glance

  1. Historical background
  2. Terms used
  3. Likely first strike weapons systems
  4. First-strike enabling weapons systems
  5. Other possible first-strike weapons systems
  6. Anti-first-strike countermeasures
  7. Destabilizing role of land-based MIRVed ICBMs
  8. Destabilizing role of missile defense

🏆 Landmark papers (most cited)

🆕 Influential since 2022

📚 Books worth reading

Ranked by number of editions on Open Library, a rough measure of how lasting a book is.

🔗 Related topics