© Reuters/US Navy
Trident II D5 missile is test-launched from the Ohio-class US Navy ballistic missile submarine USS Nebraska.
the Foreign Ministry said.
Moscow's
statement comes in response to the vice-chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Paul Selva, who vehemently promoted the modification of the warheads on Trident missiles, which are carried on Ohio-class submarines, in order for them to be
able to carry low-yield nuclear weapons.
Selva argued that the US will be put in a difficult situation if Russia decides to hit an American city with a low-yield nuclear weapon.
"The US doctrine says it will respond in kind, but without a low-yield nuclear weapon in its inventory, responding in kind means it will have to respond with a high-yield nuclear weapon," supposedly provoking and all-out nuclear war.
But the Russian Foreign Ministry on Saturday blasted the general's claims as "disingenuous" and pointed out that the
use of low-yield nuclear weapons wasn't even a part of Russia's military doctrine. "An obvious deception is also the idea that it's possible to 'limit' the use of nuclear weapons in a clash between two nuclear powers."
The yield of an incoming enemy warhead can only be determined after it detonates and the Americans are well aware of that, the ministry said in a statement. "Therefore, any launch of a strategic nuclear carrier aimed at Russian territory... regardless of the capacity of its warhead, will be treated as an aggression with the use of nuclear weapons, and met with an appropriate response."
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