The Rise of the Second Soviet Empire

[American Patriot]

LOL

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Companion Post:

• Barack Obama weighs major (80%) cuts to US deployed nuclear arsenal

Russia Wants to Build New Missiles to Hit the U.S.

by Taylor Dinerman
February 15, 2012 at 4:30 am

The US has the nerve to have missile defenses that actually defend it?

Get this: The General commanding Russia Strategic Rocket Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakayev, said in December that the new Russian Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) are needed -- because the existing ones are vulnerable to US missile defenses.

This is apparently the result of all that nice goodwill generated by the Obama administration's "reset" of relations with Vladimir Putin's Russia and the ratification of the New Start Arms Control Treaty. It should come as no surprise: nuclear weapons, along with oil and gas exports, are just about the only thing that still qualifies Russia as a "Great Power."

If Russia's leaders still resent their loss of superpower status and feel they have a strategic need to challenge the US wherever possible, then spending the money to build a new type of nuclear missile aimed at the US makes sense.

On December 23, the Russian navy completed the test firing of their "Bulava" submarine-launched ballistic missile; and the Russian Navy's high command says that it is ready to be entered into service. This missile has an 8000 kilometer range and can carry 8 to 10 nuclear warheads. Though similar to the older land-based "Topol" ICBM, the Bulava went through a long and painful development process and experienced a relatively large number of test failures -- indicating that Russia's once formidable ability to build and deploy powerful missiles such as SLBMs, ICBMs and technologically similar space launch vehicles is nowhere near as well financed as it was during the Soviet era.

In December 2010, Russia's top-of-the-line space launch vehicle, the Proton, failed to put a number of Glonass navigation satellites into orbit. In February 2011, a Rokot launch vehicle, put together from recycled ICBMs, failed. In August 2010, both a Proton and a Soyuz, carrying a Progress cargo capsule to the International Space Station failed; and last month, the launch of another Soyuz rocket , carrying a military communications satellite, ended in disaster.

While not directly related to the space launch vehicle involved, the failure of Russia's Phobos/Grunt Mars probe which crashed back to Earth on January 15, 2012, indicates that Moscow's space industry, which is embedded in their military industrial complex, has serious problems.

This string of failures seems to reveal that the December 16, 2011, announcement by General Karakayev of the Strategic Missile Forces that Russia will build a new heavy ICBM , to replace the older SS-18 missiles aimed at the US, was probably motivated by the need to demonstrate that Russia's missile-building abilities have not been affected by these accidents. Moscow's nuclear missile forces are just about the only major military asset that Russia has left.

Even more significant is that, according to a story published by Russia press agency RIA Novosti, is the admission by General Karakayev that "Russia's solid propellent ICBMs may be unable to penetrate missile defenses." There can only be one missile defense system that the General was talking about ,and that is the Ground Based Missile Defense (GMD) system, based in Alaska and California that provides at least a minimal protection to the US homeland.

Ever since Ronald Reagan gave his famous "Star Wars" speech in March1983, which lead to the rebirth of American missile defense efforts, opponents of the idea that it is not only possible but desirable to build defensive systems that can shoot down incoming nuclear missiles and their warheads have claimed that the technology cannot be developed. Yet now, a senior Russian officer has publicly admitted that America has built a system that can shoot down the solid propellent missiles that Reagan and his team thought were the most dangerous ones in the Soviet inventory. This is a major development: it proves that Ronald Reagan was right not to overestimate Soviet technological capacities.

Of course, as the US GMD system has fewer than 30 operational interceptors, the ability of Russia's missile force with its hundreds of ICBMs and SLBMs to overwhelm the US defense system is obvious. However, if the US were to chose to build a much larger number of interceptors, and to build up a "multilayered" national missile defense system, as has been promised by Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Russia would no longer have an unquestioned ability to hit a wide array of US targets with nuclear warheads. The reliability of Russia's missile strike force would be compromised.

If this is the motivation for Russia's announced decision to build a new type of nuclear missile, then Russia's commitment to "reset" its relationship with the US is based on a wildly false premise. After all, if the US does not threaten Russia's territorial integrity, why should Russia worry about America's ability to defend itself ? Or do Russia's leaders still believe that a balance of terror, based on the old doctrine of Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), is necessary?

[vector7]

Russia to test over 70 new missile systems in 2012

About 70 new rocket and missile systems will be tested at Russia’s Kapustin Yar test range in 2012, an increase of 150 percent from last year, a Defense Ministry spokesman said on Friday.

The systems are part of more than 160 ongoing projects, said Col. Vadim Koval, without providing any details.

Last year, more than 500 missile test launches were made at the Kapustin Yar rocket launch and development site, he added.

Almost all the missile and rocket related branches and services of the Russian Armed Forces, including the Strategic Missile Forces, the Air Defense Forces, and the Missile Forces and Artillery conduct their tests at Kapustin Yar, located in the Astrakhan region, between the cities of Volgograd and Astrakhan.

[vector7]

Russia retains right to play nuclear card’ – Gen-Staff Chief

Published: 15 February, 2012, 16:18



Mobile launcher 'Yars' missile system. (RIA Novosti / Sergey Pyatakov)
TAGS: Military, NATO, Nuclear, Russia

The Russian Armed Forces are ready to retaliate to any threat to national security, and will not rule out using nuclear weapons, General Nikolay Makarov, head of the Russian General Staff, said on Wednesday.

*"If there is a threat to the integrity of the Russian Federation, we are entitled to use nuclear weapons,” Makarov said in an interview with the Ekho Moskvy radio station.

Stressing that Russia’s nuclear deterrent remains the primary prerequisite for strategic stability, Makarov says the Russian Armed Forces will not cut corners.

"As regards our nuclear forces, we invest the allocated funding up to the last kopek,” Russia’s top military commander said. “We are working very seriously to upgrade our nuclear potential.”

Makarov then provided a glimpse at Russia’s shopping list for state-of-the-art military hardware.

In particular, the country’s Defense Ministry is purchasing new-generation underwater nuclear missile carriers, planning to renew and upgrade its strategic bombers, and introducing new missile systems, including Yars, for Russian Strategic Missile Troops, he said.

Makarov went on to recall that even during its darkest economic moments, Russia always provided the necessary funds for maintaining and developing its strategic nuclear forces.

"We have sufficient funds to implement the state armament program for the period until 2020,” he said. “The problem is that the national defense sector is sometimes unable to meet our demand.”

Makarov also noted that efforts are being made to develop general purpose forces. Nuclear weapons, he admitted, cannot take the place of a well-trained army.

"Unfortunately, we are facing threats from a number of unstable states, where not nuclear weapons but well-trained, strong and mobile armed forces may be required to resolve any conflict situation," the General noted.

He also mentioned that battling NATO as a whole would not be an aim Russia would pursue.

"[Russia] is not going to fight against the entire NATO," he said. "We do not have such goals and objectives.”

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Russia will target US missile defense sites if no deal - Medvedev

Published: 23 November, 2011, 16:21
Iskander missile (RIA Novosti / Aleksey Danichev)


Responding to Washington’s failure to bring Russia on board the European missile defense system, President Dmitry Medvedev announces sweeping plans to address what Moscow is calling a threat to national security.

Medvedev said he will deploy strike systems in the west and south of the country and deploy Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region in order to counter the risk posed by the European missile defense system.

“By my order the Defense Ministry will run in a warning system radar station in Kaliningrad without delay,” the Russian President said, commenting from his resident of Gorki on the outskirts of Moscow
Russia may also refuse to undertake additional steps toward disarmament in the event that its national security remains at risk.

“In the event of unfavorable developments (in regards to European missile defense), Russia reserves the right to halt further steps in the disarmament sphere and, respectively, weapons control,” Medvedev said.

“Besides, given the inseparable interconnection between the strategic offensive and defensive weapons, grounds may appear for our country’s withdrawal from the START treaty.”

New START, which limits the number of deployed strategic nuclear warheads to 1,550, was signed on April 8, 2010 in Prague and went into force on February 5, 2011.

Meanwhile, Medvedev stressed that Russia remains open to dialogue with the US and NATO regarding missile defense issues, but the cooperation must have clear legal parameters.

"We are not closing the door to further dialogue on missile defense with the US and the North Atlantic alliance, nor to practical cooperation in this area. We are ready for further dialogue," the Russian leader stressed. "The path towards such work depends upon the creation of a clear legal basis for our cooperation that will reflect our legitimate interests."

There is still time to come to mutual understanding, the Russian leader said.
Medvedev reiterated his belief that the formation of a “joint and sectored missile defense system,” which he proposed at the Russia-NATO Council summit in Lisbon, would open up the prospects for a “real strategic partnership between Russia and NATO.”

"Europe doesn't need new demarcation lines,” Medvedev said. “It needs a single perimeter of security with equal legal participation from the Russian side."

Medvedev said that US and NATO reluctance to cooperate is unfortunate because “even now such an approach is opening unique opportunities for Russia and NATO's advancement towards a truly strategic partnership."

President Medvedev also mentioned that in 2009 when US President Barack Obama decided to “scrap” the missile defense plans laid out by his predecessor, George W. Bush, Russia’s reaction was quite positive.He said the apparent change allowed the two states to sign the New START treaty.

Later, however, the United States started to implement the so-called stage-by-stage missile defense plan, while denying Russia’s participation in the project. Naturally, this concerns Russia, Medvedev said.

*Read the full text of President Dmitry Medvedev's address on missile defense.