> The number and location of nuclear weapons is tightly held secret
Location yeah, number no, due to treaties around proliferation and also hard to keep that secret with espionage and all.
> It is also unnecessary since US, and Russia and China, have hundreds of ICBMs and SLBMs
Delivery is the hardest part. Pre-staging is a huge advantage for first-strike to take out enemy leadership/infra and launch missiles so when they are launching their retaliation you are already one step ahead with your second wave. For retaliation, when someone launches nukes it is likely they have good defenses against your retaliation but probably not against your trojan nuke. That element of surprise is a huge advantage.
> The one place could see hidden nukes is shipping containers. Not ship them around the world
They do scan containers randomly, I assume this includes radiation and chemical traces.
First strike is a bad idea. In Russia and likely China, generals have ability to launch the nukes. They are on bases, in bunkers or middle of nowhere, and impossible to hit without missile. They will launch missiles once see that capital is destroyed. For US, we rely on President but there always Cabinet member that will survive.
Also, all the nations have plenty of SLBMs to retaliate after first strike. Pre-deployed nuke might have made sense back when everybody used bombers and first strike was possible. If so, they would have needed multiple of them, more than could disappear. But it would have been even worse idea, leading to WW3. Plus, back then there was no arms control and need to hide bombs.
For containers, I was not talking about deploying them but using them as retaliation. Could detonate them on the ship or launch short-range missiles from the ship.
Location yeah, number no, due to treaties around proliferation and also hard to keep that secret with espionage and all.
> It is also unnecessary since US, and Russia and China, have hundreds of ICBMs and SLBMs
Delivery is the hardest part. Pre-staging is a huge advantage for first-strike to take out enemy leadership/infra and launch missiles so when they are launching their retaliation you are already one step ahead with your second wave. For retaliation, when someone launches nukes it is likely they have good defenses against your retaliation but probably not against your trojan nuke. That element of surprise is a huge advantage.
> The one place could see hidden nukes is shipping containers. Not ship them around the world
They do scan containers randomly, I assume this includes radiation and chemical traces.