Putin orders tactical nuclear weapons drills

RT
Mon, 06 May 2024 07:36 UTC

© Sputnik / Vitaly Timkiv

FILE PHOTO: Russian troops during an exercise involving the Iskander missile system in the Southern Military District.

An exercise to check the military's ability to use smaller-range systems was announced by the Defense Ministry on Monday

Russia will test its ability to deploy tactical nuclear weapons, the Defense Ministry announced on Monday. The drill will be conducted "in the near future" and was ordered by President Vladimir Putin, the statement said.

Missile forces of the Southern Military District will be directly involved in the exercise. It will also require the participation of military aircraft and the Russian Navy, the ministry said.

The goal of the exercise is to iron out "the practical aspects of the preparation and deployment of non-strategic nuclear weapons," it added.

The military cited "provocative statements and threats against Russia by certain Western officials" as the reason for the drill. The troops will confirm that they can "ensure unconditional territorial integrity and sovereignty" of the nation, it added.

Moscow has a wide range of nuclear-capable weapons, from long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles to smaller-range tactical nukes. Amid the Ukraine conflict, senior Russian officials, including Putin, have stated that the country's nuclear doctrine allows the use of these weapons when the existence of the nation is at stake.

The US and its allies have accused Moscow of nuclear saber-rattling. Putin said in March that at no point in the conflict has the situation required such a radical move as a nuclear strike.

Comment:
1)

The military cited "provocative statements and threats against Russia by certain Western officials" as the reason for the drill.

From the same source:
28 Apr, 2024 08:14
Macron calls for EU nuclear force

The French president has previously called to show that the EU is not a "vassal" of the US

France must open a debate on building up a pan-European defense capability, to include rethinking its own nuclear potential, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.

Speaking to a group of young people at the European School in Strasbourg on Friday, Macron stressed that while France is already protected by NATO, it "must now go further" to ensure its security and "build a credible European defense."

He noted that guaranteeing that security "may mean deploying anti-missile shields" to be able to deter the use of nuclear weapons. "Being credible also means having long-range missiles that would deter the Russians," he added.

Numerous Western leaders have insisted on boosting defense capabilities amid the Ukraine conflict, citing fears that Russia could attack NATO within a few years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has dismissed such speculation as "nonsense," pointing to the fact that the US, NATO's largest contributor, spends ten times more on defense than Moscow. He has also stated that current geopolitical tensions are largely due to NATO's decision to ignore Russian security interests.

Explaining his stance on nuclear weapons, Macron went on to say that while France would use its arsenal only if its vital interests were threatened, those interests also have a wider dimension. This means that French nuclear doctrine should contribute to the credibility of the EU's defense, he said.

"I am in favor of opening this debate, which must therefore include anti-missile defense, long-range weapon firing, nuclear weapons for those who have them or who have American nuclear weapons on their soil," the president stated.

For several years, Macron has also advocated creating a "true, European army" to be able to independently strengthen continental security. This month, he also warned that "our Europe today is mortal and it can die" while calling for a "strategic autonomy" for the EU, particularly in terms of military production. The bloc "must show that it is never a vassal of the United States," he said.

The idea of creating a joint EU army, however, has met strong pushback both in Brussels and in EU capitals. EU top diplomat Josep Borrell suggested last month that while the bloc should aspire to boost the military capabilities of its individual members, that does not mean it should create a common army.

Several EU states, including Denmark and Poland, have similarly signaled that they want their security guaranteed within the existing NATO framework.

Also related: Macron warns about Russian missiles in a defeated Ukraine

In an interview with the French daily La Tribune on Saturday, Macron, who has famously refused to rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, once again advocated a policy of "strategic ambiguity" towards Russia, arguing that the key idea behind such an approach is to project strength while "not giving too many details."

Describing Russia as "an adversary," the French president stressed that establishing "a priori limits" would be interpreted as weakness. "We must remove all visibility from it, because that is what creates the ability to deter," he argued.

2) In the slow escalation of the conflict in Ukraine what is the next "logical step"?
We already have:
NATO countries - also the Nordic - quietly preparing to send troops into Ukraine!
And from:
NATO using war games to 'prepare for conflict' - Moscow

The Steadfast Defender drills, featuring some 90,000 troops from all 32 NATO member states and 1,100 combat vehicles, started in late January and will end in May.

Since several incidents in Europe and the US have previously occurred at the time of a drill, the nervousness in Russia is explainable. Moreover, Russia celebrates Victory Day (WWII victory over National Socialist Germany) on May 9th, which could be a great opportunity for disruption.

3) See also:
NATO chief admits NATO expansion was key to Russian invasion of Ukraine
NATO chief openly admits Russia invaded Ukraine because of NATO expansion
NATO says Kiev can use F-16 jets to strike targets 'outside Ukraine', despite Russia's warning (Feb 2024) which is interesting considering that Reuters in June 2023 carried this article:
Russia says U.S.-built F-16s could 'accommodate' nuclear weapons if sent to Ukraine

June 6 (Reuters) - Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that U.S.-built F-16 fighter jets can "accommodate" nuclear weapons and warned that supplying Kyiv with them will escalate the conflict further."

We must keep in mind that one of the modifications of the F-16 can 'accommodate' nuclear weapons," Lavrov said in a speech at a military base in Dushanbe in Tajikistan, according to a transcript on the ministry's website."If they do not understand this, then they are worthless as military strategists and planners."

White House spokesman John Kirby on Tuesday declined to discuss the nuclear capabilities of the F-16 fighters but noted that U.S. President Joe Biden has been consistent that he does not want to see the war escalate, certainly not into the nuclear realm.

4)

Lavrov: US placed tactical nuclear weapons in five European countries, violated Non-Proliferation Treaty (2015)
The potential catastrophe of misperceiving 'total war' as tactical war (Mar 2022)
Russia calls out 'nuclear weapons hypocrisy': US has tactical nukes in 5 non-nuclear weapon states (Mar 2023)
Putin says Russia will station tactical nukes in Belarus (Mar 2023)
US nuclear weapons in Poland would be priority military target - Moscow (Apr 2024)

Russia would consider foreign deployments of nuclear weapons in Poland a primary military target, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov has warned.

Warsaw is in talks with Washington on potentially hosting nuclear arms as part of a NATO program. President Andrzej Duda reiterated Poland's willingness to host the weapons in an interview this week.

4) The Wiki on tactical nuclear weapons

A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic nuclear weapon (NSNW)^[1] is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested friendly territory.

[...]
The yield varies for a tactical nuclear weapon from a fraction of a kiloton to approximately 50 kilotons.^[7] In comparison, a strategic nuclear weapon has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton, with much larger warheads available.^[7]

For comparison here is a conversion between the Richter Scale in terms of TNT with comments on what the larger numbers mean in terms of kilotons

Richter Tons of TNT Explosion

1 0.0005
2 0.0151
3 0.4769
4 15.0802
5 476.8791 This is half a kiloton of TNT
6 15.0802 * 10³ This is 15 kilotons of TNT
6.5 84.8024 * 10³ This is 85 kilotons of TNT

The above table describes the energy released, but since less energy is transferred to the ground by a hot exploding nuclear weapon than during an earthquake, the actual earthquake from a bomb that hits the earth should be less.

5) This source has:

The United States has about 200 tactical nuclear gravity bombs with explosive yields adjustable between 0.3 and 170 kilotons. (The yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 15 kilotons.) The Pentagon deploys about 100 of those bombs, called the B61, in five European countries: Italy, Germany, Turkey, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Among the tactical nuclear are the Neutron bombs:

Technically speaking, every low-yield nuclear weapon is a radiation weapon, including non-enhanced variants. All nuclear weapons up to about 10 kilotons in yield have prompt neutron radiation^[2] as their furthest-reaching lethal component. For standard weapons above about 10 kilotons of yield, the lethal blast and thermal effects radius begins to exceed the lethal ionizing radiation radius.^[11][12][13] Enhanced radiation weapons also fall into this same yield range and simply enhance the intensity and range of the neutron dose for a given yield.