situations in which US policy envisons use of nuclear weapons

Geographic combatant commanders may request Presidential approval for use of nuclear weapons for a variety of conditions. Examples include:

• An adversary using or intending to use WMD against US, multinational, or alliance forces or civilian populations.
• Imminent attack from adversary biological weapons that only effects from nuclear weapons can safely destroy.
• Attacks on adversary installations including WMD, deep, hardened bunkers containing chemical or biological weapons or the C2 infrastructure required for the adversary to execute a WMD attack against the United States or its friends and allies.
• To counter potentially overwhelming adversary conventional forces, including mobile and area targets (troop concentration).
• For rapid and favorable war termination on US terms.
• To ensure success of US and multinational operations.
• To demonstrate US intent and capability to use nuclear weapons to deter adversary use of WMD.
• To respond to adversary-supplied WMD use by surrogates against US and multinational forces or civilian populations.

Source: Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations, DoD Joint Publication 3-12.

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