nuclear-news

Putin – tough guy in Russia’s nuclear arsenal tests

Putin flexes muscle in big test of Russia’s nuclear arsenal Russia says it is modernizing a nuclear arsenal that was largely created during the Cold War Live Mint Steve Gutterman  Oct 21 2012.  Moscow: President Vladimir Putin took a leading role in the latest tests of Russia’s strategic nuclear arsenal, the most comprehensive since the 1991 Soviet collapse, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
The exercises, held mostly on Friday, featured prominently in news
reports on state television which seemed aimed to show Russians and
the world that Putin is the hands-on chief of a resurgent power.
Tests involving command systems and all three components of the
nuclear “triad”—land and sea—launched long-range nuclear missiles and
strategic bombers—were conducted “under the personal leadership of
Vladimir Putin”, the Kremlin said.
An RS-12M Topol Intercontinental Ballistic Missile was launched from
the Plesetsk site in northern Russia, and a submarine test-launched
another ICBM from the Sea of Okhotsk, the defence ministry said.
Long-range Tu-95 and Tu-160 bombers fired four guided missiles that
hit their targets on a testing range in the northwestern Komi region,
it said.
“Exercises of the strategic nuclear forces were conducted on such a
scale for the first time in the modern history of Russia,” the Kremlin
statement said…. n the 2010 New START treaty, Russia and the United
States set lower numerical ceilings on the weapons tested in the
exercise.
But Putin has made clear further cuts depend, among other things, on
Washington assuaging his concerns about anti-missile defences it is
deploying, including a European shield Russia says will make it more
vulnerable.
Russian and American leaders say nuclear war between the Cold War
rivals is now unthinkable.
But critics say Putin—in power since 2000 and back as military
commander-in-chief since his return to the Kremlin in May after four
years as prime minister—is exaggerating potential threats from the
West to bolster support at home. REUTERS
http://www.livemint.com/Politics/5tZs1DmJNUQiHQO7DhNrBO/Putin-flexes-muscle-in-big-test-of-Russias-nuclear-arsenal.html

October 22, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | Russia, weapons and war