A Pentagon chart misleadingly suggests the U.S. is falling behind in a nuclear arms race
A former colleague suggested that  a chart published in the Trump administrationâs Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)  might be worthy of a fact check  saying it reminded him of exaggerations concerning Soviet military power during  the Reagan administration . Ordinarily  a chart buried in a government report might not merit a fact check  but clearly itâs important to  the administration . As shown in the quote above  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis even cited it in testimony before Congress.
 The chart  purports to show that Russia  China and North Korea have raced ahead of the United States in developing new nuclear systems since the last NPR was released in 2010. Ironically   the chart  already had caused controversy because  it  initially suggested that Taiwan was part of China  an embarrassing error that led the Defense Department to pull the document and fix the image of China.
But thatâs really a minor flub compared with the inconsistent and misleading way  the chart  compares the United States with its nuclear adversaries. Letâs take a look.
 The chart  appears on Page 8 in a section that argues that since 2010  when President Barack Obama pressed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in strategic policy  rivals have moved ahead. âWhile the United States has continued to reduce the number and salience of nuclear weapons  others  including Russia and China  have moved in the opposite direction â the NPR says. Referencing the chart  the NPR says it âillustrates the marked difference between U.S. efforts to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons and the contrary actions of others over the past decade.â
 The chart  is hard to read and has little detail  so  it  appears mainly intended to serve a propaganda purpose â at one glance  one would get the impression that the United States has stood still while the other nations have raced ahead. Mattis even claimed that adversaries had developed 34 ânew systemsâ compared with just one for the United States.
Interestingly  the Russian SS-27 has been equipped with multiple reentry vehicles in apparent violation of the START treaty. âThe Russians claimed it was a ânewâ missile to avoid admitting the violation  but the U.S. largely used the designation Mod 2 to indicate otherwise â Lewis said. âThe Trump administration has now retroactively assessed the Russians as being in compliance to make a PR point. Russia announced that deployment of the Yars would start in December 2009 after the START treaty expired.â
Keep tabs on Trumpâs promises with our Trump Promise Tracker.
A former colleague suggested that  a chart published in the  [TGT]  administrationâs Nuclear Posture Review (NPR)  might be worthy of a fact check  saying it reminded him of exaggerations concerning Soviet military power during  the Reagan administration . Ordinarily  a chart buried in a government report might not merit a fact check  but clearly itâs important to  the administration . As shown in the quote above  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis even cited it in testimony before Congress.
 The chart  purports to show that Russia  China and North Korea have raced ahead of the United States in developing new nuclear systems since the last NPR was released in 2010. Ironically   the chart  already had caused controversy because  it  initially suggested that Taiwan was part of China  an embarrassing error that led the Defense Department to pull the document and fix the image of China.
But thatâs really a minor flub compared with the inconsistent and misleading way  the chart  compares the United States with its nuclear adversaries. Letâs take a look.
 The chart  appears on Page 8 in a section that argues that since 2010  when President Barack Obama pressed to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in strategic policy  rivals have moved ahead. âWhile the United States has continued to reduce the number and salience of nuclear weapons  others  including Russia and China  have moved in the opposite direction â the NPR says. Referencing the chart  the NPR says it âillustrates the marked difference between U.S. efforts to reduce the salience of nuclear weapons and the contrary actions of others over the past decade.â
 The chart  is hard to read and has little detail  so  it  appears mainly intended to serve a propaganda purpose â at one glance  one would get the impression that the United States has stood still while the other nations have raced ahead. Mattis even claimed that adversaries had developed 34 ânew systemsâ compared with just one for the United States.
Interestingly  the Russian SS-27 has been equipped with multiple reentry vehicles in apparent violation of the START treaty. âThe Russians claimed it was a ânewâ missile to avoid admitting the violation  but the U.S. largely used the designation Mod 2 to indicate otherwise â Lewis said. âThe  [TGT]  administration has now retroactively assessed the Russians as being in compliance to make a PR point. Russia announced that deployment of the Yars would start in December 2009 after the START treaty expired.â
Keep tabs on  [TGT] âs promises with our  [TGT]  Promise Tracker.