Posted on 12/26/2005 10:55:13 AM PST by lizol
Putin's show of strength triggers fear of fresh nuclear arms race
FRASER NELSON POLITICAL EDITOR
VLADIMIR Putin has sparked fears of a new arms race between Russia and the United States by deploying a nuclear ballistic strike force system that officials made clear could penetrate US anti- missile defences.
On Christmas Eve, the Russian army activated a new fleet of Topol-M missiles that can fit a nuclear warhead and travel 6,000 miles, changing trajectory to foil any enemy interception device.
The accompanying hawkish rhetoric of the Russian military commanders and the frenetic response of the US navy have stoked concern that the former Cold War adversaries have quietly resumed the arms race.
General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Russian missile forces, has mobilised a new battalion for the Topol-M missiles, which have a capacity for a one megatonne impact - 75 times the power of the 1945 Hiroshima bomb.
Gen Solovtsov, a critic of US anti- missile defence technology, said the Topol-M missile "is capable of piercing any missile defence system" and is immune to electromagnetic blasts used by current US anti-missile systems.
While Russia had disbanded two missile divisions last year, it has now formed more than 20 new units - in the fastest increase of nuclear spending since the run-up to the Cuban missile crisis.
Last month, the US navy carried out its most ambitious and successful test of an anti-missile interceptor, which can be launched from an Aegis class cruiser in the Pacific Ocean. A warhead from an incoming rocket was destroyed 100 miles above sea level - the first time an anti- missile defence has succeeded, in tests, when launched from a ship.
Duncan Lamont, a British defence analyst and editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, said the new Topol missiles could evade the "ballistic missile defences currently being fielded in Alaska and California".
The roll-out of the Topol-M and the hawkish accompanying language mark the fastest expansion of nuclear missiles since the SS-18 and Pershing II technologies were rolled out a generation ago.
Since the last US-Russia arms control treaty was signed in 1993 in Moscow, Russia has struggled to fund technology to replace its ageing defence system. The budget dried up as the Russian economy suffered.
But now the economy is flush with new oil wealth, the nuclear missile programme has been revived and was last month allocated a £1 billion budget increase from the Kremlin. This has boosted Mr Putin's popularity.
Japan, growing anxious about a nuclear missile strike from North Korea, signed up to the American missile defence programme last week and allocated £14 million for joint research.
The Ukrainian government, elected last year in a part-protest against Moscow's influence, has asked to come back under the former Soviet military umbrella and be protected by the Topol-M stationed in the Volga river.
In September, Russia successfully tested a Bulava missile, a submarine-launched equivalent of the Topol-M. Launched from the White Sea, it hit its target 30 minutes later on Kamchatka, in the opposite, Far Eastern side of Russia.
The escalation in missile defence will pose difficult questions for Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, who must soon decide whether to renew Britain's trident nuclear deterrent. The case for not doing so is largely based on the pacification of post-Soviet Russia.
Relations with Mr Putin have been increasingly strained, as western leaders have criticised his heavy-handed style, his imprisonment of political opponents and slow pace towards democratising the country.
The European Union has condemned Mr Putin's decision to sell anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, whose new president last month spoke of his desire to "wipe Israel off the map". Iran says it wants to buy Russian nuclear energy next.
Russia takes over the year-long G8 presidency from Britain in January. Mr Putin has made his theme security of energy supply - which marries concern over Iraq with the Kremlin's concerns about its control of Caspian oil reserves.
The scarriest thing about another arms race is that while we won the last one because of Republican Ronald Reagan, we may lose the next because of liberals.
That window into Putin's soul seems to be getting grimier and grimier. The next thing he'll probably do is find a way to get himself declared president for life.
I'm no fan of Vlad's..but anyone who thinks that he is worried about the USA is nuts..Putin's concerned about Red China..and rightly so...Imahgine, say, abotu 20 million, give ort take a few..Chinese just walking north..annexing Siberia one foot at a time..and Putin well knows that NO WAY would the USA take Russia's side in that war...so he has to have the ability to wipe our most Chinese cities....it's the old Cold War scenario of MAD updated to the current world.. because ast the same time he rearms Russia..he also sells the Chinese much of their military technology...but much of Russian arms sales to PRC ..which involve naval assets and sea based systems..would not be readily useful in a land battle between the PRC and Russia..he's "keeping his enemies closer"..following the Godfather maxim...
Did anyone really believe that Russia had changed?
They can have the greatest missiles in the world and it makes no difference, No way in hell can they fire them at the USA without being destroyed. They know this and we do too.They are just peeing away their money on this when it could be better used.
You have a point. But I wasn't pleased to see that big joint military exercise that Russia and China put on a few months ago.
Yeah, the easiest thing to do is cut and run. Since we've already lost the Iraq war, and are just waiting for Murtha to tell us where to redeploy, what's the use? /sarcasm!!!!
The Russians have a missle defense system in place, if I'm not mistaken. We don't.
We lose....
Wheels within wheels...
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Russia went broke trying to keep up with us last time and it will turn out no better this time. They have satellite nations to grab money from and their own economy is in the tank.
Yes the Moscow ABM system, which is more local to Moscow. Also in question (and the CIA fought over this for decades) is if the old Soviet/Russian SAM belt is in fact a "dual use" ABM system as well. The Tallinin system which was being constructed at the time of the ABM system, and promised to be just a SAM... (like the Bio weapons treaty they cheated on)
William T Lee wrote a great book on this;
http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/index.jsp?section=papers&code=02-D_57
Yes, but for the worse since Putin can into the picture. His alliances with Islamic nutters is disturbing.
The Russians still have a lot of dangerous stuff but our superiority over them in nuclear weapons, delivery systems, and (above all else) satellite detection capabilities is so great that they are not in the position to even fantasize about a first strike.
Putin has turned out to be a bum but I agree that this probably more a response to China than the US.
My understanding is that their system has failed as many times as it has succeeded.
Still they do fare far better in Math and Science than the average American student, and work far cheaper. It's a legitimate concern.
Maybe if American schools taught less speculation; values; and sex, we'd have time to train the best and the brightest in military defence weapons.
They also had a socailist economy last time where people got paid work or no work. I wouldn't underestimate them given their skills in math and science, free market economy, and the liberals weighing down our chances.
"Putin's concerned about Red China"
If he was concerned about Red China he wouldn't be selling them billions of dollars of weapons each year.
"which involve naval assets and sea based systems..would not be readily useful in a land battle between the PRC and Russia"
What about the Su-27 and the Su-30 and the AA-12 missile? There are also other land based systems that Russia has sold to China.
The shanghai cooperation organization is the greatest threat to nuclear war in the coming years.
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