Strikes fail – structural barriers check.
Gertz ‘18 (Bill Gertz is a senior editor and reporter for Washington Beacon and the Washington Post, 9/6/18, “U.S. Lacks Nuclear Weapon for Hardened Underground Targets,” https://freebeacon.com/national-security/u-s-lacks-nuclear-weapon-hardened-underground-targets/)(Shiv)
Trump administration plans to upgrade the military's aging nuclear arsenal do not include a new weapon that experts say is needed to blast deeply buried, hardened targets used by Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran to house their leaders and weapons. The Air Force announced recently that a B-2 bomber at Nellis Air Force Base conducted a simulated test of the modernized B61 nuclear gravity bomb that the Pentagon says will have some earth-penetrating capability. However, the B61 Mod 12 will not be capable of exploding through hundreds of feet of rock or concrete that protects Russia's Kasvinsky Mountain nuclear command post, or key underground command centers in the 3,000-mile-long Great Underground Wall complex that houses China's nuclear forces and leaders. North Korea and Iran also have dug deep underground bunkers to hide leaders and protect weapons systems from precision aircraft and missile strikes.
Strikes fail – any remaining nukes reignites conflict.
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