Russia planning large nuclear manoeuvres: Report

The Star ^ | January 30 2004 | VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV/AP

[knighthawk]

MOSCOW — Russian nuclear forces are preparing for a massive exercise that would be their largest in more than 20 years, a newspaper reported today.

The one-day manoeuvres set for next month would involve test-firing several ballistic missiles and taking almost the entire fleet of Russia's strategic bombers into the air in a simulation of a nuclear conflict, according to the business daily Kommersant.

Official comments on the exercise have been sketchy. The chief of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces, Col.-Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, was quoted by the Interfax-Military News Agency yesterday as saying the exercise would involve several launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles in various regions of Russia but gave no further details.

Kommersant said that the manoeuvres would be the largest since the 1982 exercise of Soviet nuclear forces dubbed by the West as the "seven-hour nuclear war."

In the exercise planned for February, Russian Tu-160 bombers are set to test-fire cruise missiles over the northern Atlantic, and other strategic bombers are to conduct flights over Russia's Arctic regions and test-fire missiles at a southern range near the Caspian Sea, the newspaper said.

In addition, Russia's strategic forces are scheduled to launch military satellites from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia, Kommersant reported.

A system warning of an enemy missile attack and a missile defence system protecting Moscow will also be involved in the exercise — which President Vladimir Putin is set to attend, the newspaper said.

Putin has tried to revive Russia's military might, eroded by post-Soviet funding shortages, and the ambitious exercises are certain to further bolster his popularity in the run-up to the March 14 presidential election which he is expected to win in a landslide.

"Pre-election manoeuvres," Kommersant acerbically dubbed the exercises. It said Moscow had warned Washington about the exercises, describing them as part of efforts to fend off terror threats.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Poohbah]

If they haven't exercised at this level of intensity in 20 years, the results should be pretty comical. Incidentally, the 1982 exercise was consdiered a complete disaster--they gave their Strategic Rocket Forces every advantage they could, and the Amerikanski running-dog imperialist leackeys of Wall Street STILL kicked commie butt.

[Gefreiter]

I can see how terrorist cells would be threatened by ICBMs.

This exercise is obviously for internal consumption only; in fact, I'm willing to bet that so many simultaneous events will strain the forces involved.

They're in really rough shape.

[ZOOKER]

This makes me uneasy.

Hope it comes out better than their naval manuevres when they lost the Kursk.

I hope they don't actually load any nuclear bombs on the planes. I worry they might lose one, since they have no money for training or maintenance.

[50sDad]

Hope it comes out better than their naval manuevres when they lost the Kursk.

I was just thinking that. Did we ever gather good intel on what the "special weapon" was that caused the sub to deep six?

[50sDad]

Hope it comes out better than their naval manuevres when they lost the Kursk.

I was just thinking that. Did we ever gather good intel on what the "special weapon" was that caused the sub to deep six?

[polemikos]

The Russian forces are in disarray.
This exercise isn't even about the last war,
but one several decades old.
Putin is giving his generals something to do.
System-wide failures will give Putin reason
to cut off a few heads.

[ZOOKER]

Prevailing opinion is that a faulty torpedo exploded within the torpedo room.

It was a chemical-powered torpedo that used volatile hydrogen peroxide, a design western powers abandoned years ago as too unstable/dangerous.

[Stonewall Jackson]

With the condition to which much of the Russian military equipment has been allowed to degrade, I'm not sure I would want to be anywhere near these test areas. There are enough accidents when the equipment is in top condition and the crews (particularly aircrews) have been constantly training.

Russian pilots are limited to less than 1/10th the flight time as their American counterparts and most of their aircraft are in poor condition due to the drainage of aircraft and spare parts heading down to Chechnya. The Russian fleet is in the same boat (pardon the pun), with many of their finest vessels simply abandoned to rust away due to a lack of parts, fuel, and trained crewmen.

[Pearls Before Swine]

Did we ever gather good intel on what the "special weapon" was that caused the sub to deep six?

The rumor I heard was that it was an experimental hydrogen-peroxide fueled, super-cavitating torpedo that could run at much higher speeds than ordinary torpedoes. Scientific American ran an article on super-cavitation a year or so ago.

[stuartcr]

I doubt whether the real answer to this will appear here in freerepublic.

[Poohbah]

I was just thinking that. Did we ever gather good intel on what the "special weapon" was that caused the sub to deep six?

A heavyweight torpedo intended to mirror our own Mark 48 ADCAP.

[Fishing-guy]

What I am worried about is some idiots forget to remove the warheads, and they blow up some city.

[Indie]

Anyone who says the bear is dead, and laughs at this, is blind.

[DarkWaters]

Anyone who says the bear is dead, and laughs at this, is blind.


Absolutely. Just goes to show how many have bought the image of a potemkin military. They fail to understand that they shifted much of their forces to support rather than lead in the use of nuclear weapons(which is now the primary means of offense and defense).

[Tallguy]

Did we ever gather good intel on what the "special weapon" was that caused the sub to deep six?

My understanding was that most of the "Norwegian" salvage divers were actually Brits. Either way, the first "eyes" inside the Kursk were from a NATO nation. It's all very comical when you think about how hard the Russians were trying to "sell" the idea that their sub had been rammed by an American or British nuke boat.

[geedee]

The one-day manoeuvres set for next month would involve test-firing several ballistic missiles and taking almost the entire fleet of Russia's strategic bombers into the air in a simulation of a nuclear conflict, according to the business daily Kommersant.

Flight controller/air traffic controller/mechanic/pilot Komrad Igor Stanislosninski and his co-pilot Mutt prepare the fleet . . .

[klpt]

[jpsb]

I wonder who they are planing on attacking.