Pentagon Shifts Nuclear Strategy Amid Rising Tensions With China and Russia

The Pentagon is reworking its nuclear strategy to focus on potential regional conflicts with China and Russia. A classified framework, drafted by Defense Department policy chief Elbridge Colby, proposes using shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons instead of relying mainly on long-range strategic ones.

This shift in approach would mark a departure from decades of US doctrine built around the threat of a large retaliatory strike. The emerging strategy aims to give the president more limited nuclear options during a crisis and prevent a conventional conflict from becoming a full nuclear exchange.

The report does not formally include Bitcoin, but its focus on China and Russia overlaps with separate US military discussions about decentralized networks, cybersecurity, and digital financial infrastructure. In April, US Indo-Pacific Command chief Admiral Samuel Paparo told lawmakers that the military was operating a Bitcoin node and testing the network in an operational setting.

The White House established the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve through a March 2025 executive order. The reserve is capitalized with BTC forfeited through criminal or civil proceedings rather than direct market purchases. No complete public audit of the federal government's holdings was available at the time, making exact current holdings difficult to confirm.