The U.S. military plans to allow regional combatant commanders to request the president for approval to carry out preemptive nuclear strikes against possible attacks on the United States or its allies with weapons of mass destruction, according to a draft new nuclear operations paper.

The March 15 draft paper, a copy of which was made available, is titled “Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations” providing “guidelines for the joint employment of forces in nuclear operations…for the employment of U.S. nuclear forces, command and control relationships, and weapons effect considerations.”

The paper, drafted by the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the U.S. Armed Forces, also revealed that submarines which make port calls in Yokosuka, Sasebo and Okinawa in Japan are prepared for reloading nuclear warheads if necessary to deal with a crisis.

“There are numerous nonstate organizations (terrorist, criminal) and about 30 nations with WMD programs, including many regional states,” the paper says in allowing combatant commanders in the Pacific and other theaters to maintain an option of preemptive strikes against “rogue” states and terrorists and “request presidential approval for use of nuclear weapons” under set conditions.

Citing North Korea, Iran and some other countries as threats, the report set out contingencies for which U.S. nuclear strikes must be prepared and called for developing earth-penetrating nuclear bombs to destroy hidden underground military facilities, including those for storing WMD and ballistic missiles.

“The nature (of the paper) is to explain not details but cross spectrum for how to conduct operations,” the official said, noting that it “means for all services, Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine.” link

The US sets the standards for military planning, so it is reasonable to suppose that other nations will wish to adopt this forward-thinking strategy.