What would the yield of these things be? I'd like to see us researching higher yield next-gen stuff for replacements of the W88 as well.
It's less about yield and more about reachieving parity. It's probably a dial-a-nuke, though.
If they think they can survive underground, that causes an imbalance in MAD.
From Ivan's perspective, their Topol-M restores the parity that our missile defense shield upset.
I'd put my money on our shield before I'd put it on their bunkers.
Due to leftism and PCism our newest warheads are untested and over 13 years old. Nukes are maintainence intensive weapons that have a finite lifespan (especially when tritium is used). Chances are that Russia's will not work given the very poor condition they are in. We not only need to research new nukes but TEST them as well. Not subcritical but fill live testing. We also need big high yield weapons in the multi-megaton range. We need to bring back the various 9 to 25 megaton warheads we used to have.