I have been blogging on international nuclear security issues lately. Yesterday, I wrote about the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit, a meeting of nations concerned with nuclear security and terrorist threats. Much progress has been made in making nuclear materials more secure around the globe but much remains to be done. Unfortunately, the U.S. and Russia have experienced a decline in their relationship and Russia did not attend the Summit.
Both the U.S. and Russia have around five thousand nuclear warheads that they can deliver with the triad of bombers, missiles and submarines. Of these, each has about fifteen hundred that are currently deployed and ready for launch. Since it is estimated that the detonation of as few as a hundred nuclear warheads could bring on a civilization-ending nuclear winter, calling this overkill is a serious understatement. Despite a claimed commitment to nuclear disarmament and multiple treaties to accomplish it, both countries are currently working on increasing their nuclear arsenals.
Pentagon officials have recently reported that Russia is doubling the number of its strategic nuclear warheads. They are deploying multiple reentry vehicles which are independently targetable and referred to as MIRVs on their mobile SS-27 missiles as well as submarine-launched SS-N-32 missiles. This deployment put Moscow well above the limits set for warheads under the 2010 New START arms treaty which calls for Russia and the U.S. to reduce their deployable warheads to one thousand five hundred and fifty by February of 2018. The U.S. is currently below the limit at one thousand five hundred and thirty eight while Russia has exceeded the limit by ninety eight warheads for a total of one thousand six hundred and forty eight. The Pentagon also said that the Russians were trying to prevent weapons inspectors from checking Russian warheads.
Russia has been working on a major nuclear forces expansion lately. They are building road-mobile, rail-mobile and silo-based intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) as well as modernizing the missiles in their nuclear submarines. They are also building a new long-range bomber. Although the Russians have been involved in a series of disarmament treaties and have converted a lot of plutonium from Cold War era Soviet nuclear weapons to nuclear reactor fuel, they have also been working on the build-up of their nuclear forces for more than fifteen years.
This expansion of Russian nuclear forces is a grave concern for U.S. military planners. The Russian government under Vladimir Putin has become increasingly belligerent in the past few years. Russia has been invading other countries airspaces with nuclear bombers and other nations territorial waters with nuclear submarines. He has been talking casually about using tactical nuclear weapons in Eastern Europe in a conventional war with NATO forces. In response, the Pentagon is seeking more funds for modernizing the aging U.S. nuclear forces after seven years of cuts in the U.S. defense budget. Current and former U.S. officials say that Russia is the greatest threat to the security of the U.S. in the world, especially in light of their recent behavior and statements.
Russian SS-27 mobile missile:
Source: http://vitalykuzmin.net/?q=node/446
