Sam Roggeveen
speaker
193 appearances
2 recordings
1 series
first heard Jun 2026
last heard 8 Jul
Sam Roggeveen’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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recordings per month · last 12 monthsRecordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jul 2026 with 1.
Appearances
But these are weapons that are designed with other nuclear-armed countries in mind.
You know, this test is not about us.
They are retaliatory weapons that are designed to be a guaranteed capability to strike back if any nuclear-armed country launches a first strike.
So they are directed at other nuclear powers.
I mean, ideally, we wouldn't have these nuclear weapons at all, but short of that, it's kind of good that they're all testing them occasionally because...
What we want is for them to be safe and secure and reliable.
And part of making them safe, secure and reliable is every once in a while, you've got to test them.
And the other benefit of a test is that it signals to other nuclear-armed countries that we have reliable systems, that today is not a good day to attack us because you can be sure we are guaranteed to have the capability to hit you back.
It's many, many times the kind of damage that was done to Hiroshima, of course, when the first atomic weapon was used.
So safe to say it's absolutely devastating.
And that is the whole point of these weapons, that all sides know that any attempt to launch a
A first strike against the enemy would have devastating consequences for them.
And in that regard, it's worth saying, actually, Sam, that China is in the midst of a massive expansion of its nuclear arsenal.
Just a few years ago, it was around 300 warheads.
Most experts now estimate that they are ramping up to a maximum of around 1,500 operational warheads, which would put them roughly at the same level as the United States and Russia.
Well, it's worth pointing out that China did conduct lots of missile tests in that 40-year period.
It just did them over Chinese territory.
It didn't fire missiles out to sea.
So they're obviously testing some different capabilities when they fire at sea.
But I think another reason why this is happening now is, as I said earlier, China's embarking now on a massive expansion of its capabilities.
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