Nuclear weapons would be the target – diminishes the number of weapons available to use
Johnson 17 [Sarah Johnson, Writer for BillTrack50, citing Jeffrey Lewis, director of the East Asia Nonproliferation Program for the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, April 27, 2017, “U.S. Nuclear First Strike Policy; Be Afraid,” https://www.billtrack50.com/blog/in-the-news/u-s-nuclear-first-strike-policy-be-afraid]
For example, if Russia launched a nuclear weapon, the US has the 30 minute flight time of the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) to assess their desire to “launch under attack”. The many different steps in the notification process take up about 22 of the 30 minutes; like the time it takes for the missiles to break through clouds, detection of the launch, transmitting different messages, informing the president and authenticating orders to launch. All of this effectively gives the president eight minutes to decide to whether or not to blow up the world. The second situation is a preemptive strike — a first-strike attack with nuclear weapons carried out to destroy an enemy’s capacity to respond. Preemptive strikes can be based on the assumption that the enemy is planning an imminent attack, but don’t have to be. The methodology behind a preemptive nuclear strike is to attack the enemy’s strategic nuclear weapon facilities (missile silos, submarine bases, bomber airfields), command and control sites and storage depots first. By hitting these targets first the enemy will be so wounded with so little of their resources left that they will be forced to surrender with minimal damage to the attacking party.