Russian President Vladimir Putin has introduced that important progress has been made in trails or a brand new class of strategic nuclear weapon.“I feel we may have the chance within the close to future to interrupt some information a few new weapon that we introduced a very long time in the past,” he acknowledged, including that it “is present process exams [which] are continuing efficiently.” He additional famous {that a} “sure arms race is underway” on the earth, and warned that numerous international locations are nuclear exams to make sure the capabilities of their arsenals. He made clear that Russia would resume nuclear testing ought to different international locations accomplish that. The president additional burdened that Russia was safe because of the “novelty” of its nuclear deterrent and its fixed enchancment, claiming that the extent of sophistication of the nuclear arsenal was unsurpassed anyplace on the earth.
Regardless of a decline within the standing of many elements of Russia’s standard forces, concentrated effort in its nuclear capabilities have ensured that the nation’s arsenal is in lots of respects essentially the most succesful on the earth. The Russian intercontinental raged ballistic missile arsenal, particularly, is comprised virtually totally of recent post-Soviet methods, lots of which have notably spectacular capabilities such because the carriage of Avangard hypersonic glide automobiles to keep away from interception. This contrasts starkly with the American arsenal, which is comprised totally of Minuteman III missiles from the Nineteen Seventies which are by far the oldest ICBMs in service anyplace on the earth at the moment. The standings of the Russian and American strategic submarine fleets is taken into account broadly on par, whereas the US is taken into account to retain a bonus in its air launched nuclear capabilities attributable to its deployment of F-35 stealth fighters and B-2 stealth bombers as supply platforms. Russia has compensated for its lack of stealth plane by deploying numerous cruise missiles with hypersonic or stealth capabilities such because the Kh-102 and Zircon.
The character of the brand new Russian strategic nuclear weapon stays unsure, with some sources speculating that it could possibly be the Oreshnik intermediate vary ballistic missile. The Oreshik is Russia’s first post-Soviet sort of intermediate vary ballistic missile, and was first fired in fight on November 21 in opposition to Ukrainian targets, at which era this system’s existence was first introduced to the world. With President Putin on June 23 having confirmed that serial manufacturing had begun, nevertheless, the missile is assumed to have already progressed past its testing phases. Allusions to a brand new weapons system as one which was “introduced a very long time in the past,” the place the Oreshnik was introduced solely in November 2024, signifies that it’s not the system in query. One other chance is that the system referred to is the Poseidon nuclear armed torpedo or the 9M730 Burevestnik nuclear-powered nuclear-armed cruise missile, each of that are distinctive new belongings.
