I have been blogging a lot recently about nuclear weapons and nuclear war. After the end of the Cold War in 1991 with the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was hoped that nuclear disarmament would proceed and humanity could remove the dark cloud of nuclear war for its future. Unfortunately, although nuclear weapons have been reduced by about eighty percent in the U.S. and Russia, each still has thousands of war heads ready to launch. In addition, other countries have nuclear weapons and are in conflicts with their neighbors that could escalate. Since Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, relations between Russia and the U.S. have deteriorated. Both countries are upgrading their nuclear arsenals. In addition, both are working on new nuclear weapons. Today I am going to discuss a new Russian weapons. Tomorrow I will talk about a new U.S. weapon.
The Pentagon has just reported that the Russians are building a drone submarine for the purpose of delivering megaton nuclear warheads to U.S. harbors and coastal cities. Primary targets would be key ports used by U.S. nuclear submarines such as Kings Bay in Geogia and Bremerton in Washington. They have given the Russia program a code name of "Kanyon." While the Pentagon has reported the existence of the Russian program, they have shared little in the way of details. They have said that the new weapon would be an autonomous uncrewed submarine armed with a big enough nuclear warhead to do massive damage. This drone sub will have a high-speed and long-distance capability but it is years away from the prototype and testing phase.
Russian leaders announced a new maritime strategy this year that included calling for the development of innovative technologies such as unmanned underwater vehicles. This was reported in Jane's 360 and was seen as a probable reference to the Kanyon program. A Russian military research vessel named the Yantar sailed along the east coast of the United States recently. The Pentagon said that the Yantar was carrying out underwater reconnaissance. It was gathering the sort of information that could be used to support an underwater drone sub such as the Kanyon. The Pentagon planners are very concerned about the Kanyon program and are going to have to develop counter measures against such autonomous underwater drones armed with nuclear weapons.
The Kanyon project is part of what the Pentagon refers to as "an aggressive strategic nuclear forces modernization" undertaken by the Russian President, Vladimir Putin. The Russian nuclear buildup is seen as an attempt by Putin to gain a strategic nuclear advantage over the U.S. The U.S. has been trying to work with Russia to reduce the number of warheads and delivery platforms that each maintains but this new aggression on the part of Russia will definitely make further arms reduction treaties more difficult to achieve. Russia is not complying with the 1987 Intermediate-Range nuclear Forces Treaty at present and the new developments make it unlikely that Russia will return to compliance any time soon. Once again the specter of nuclear war rises.
Artist's concept of Russian nuclear submarine drone:
