Between the Obama Administration’s ‘rebuilding’ plans and Britain’s notorious Trident, the lesson of nuclear weapons is that no matter how much money has been wasted on them, nations can always think of excuses to waste billions more building newer versions of weapons whose use is unthinkable.
Russia’s decided to get in on that, announcing its own plans to replace the Voyevoda ICBMs with a new type of long-range nuke-capable missile called the Sarmat.
The Voyevodas, R-36M2, were deployed by the Soviet Union during the late 1970s. NATO designated them the SS-18 Satan, because apparently that was the only way they could make nuclear war sound even scarier.
Once again, the official “end of life” date is approaching for weapons never used and the military wants billions to replace it with a newer model they can likewise never use.
The concern about some such weapons not working past their shelf life is being used to justify the expenses, but as a practical matter the US and Russia both have nuclear arsenals capable of wiping out the entire human race several times over, so the prospect that a few might not work seems a pointless worry.
I should also point out that Russia has been working on the replacement for the SS-18 for a few years now. This is only making it into the news cycle because of the recent deployment of the Iskanders to Kalingrad. I should point out that the SS-18 was the largest ICBM ever built as it carried TEN 750 kiloton warheads (the single bomb which destroyed Hiroshima was 15 kilotons).
The old Soviet SS-18's (most now stripped of their warheads) have been recycled and are now regularly used for placing Russian and European satellites into orbit.
Given the US Asia pivot towards China and the US obsession with surrounding Russia with a missile shield, this doesn't come as a surprise. The START treaty will have to either be sacked or re-written to accommodate the deployment of a new version of the "Satan."
The Russians can read the books by missile engineer Bob Aldridge and his research papers on http://www.plrc.org They know his wise words on the missiles in Romania, Poland and on 32 ships in the Mediterranean Sea: "Whether they are on ships or land, they are still a necessary component for an unanswerable first strike." Referring to the interview with Ray McGovern and comments on http://www.claus eric/antiwar.com they calculate with 1-3 % casualties in the US WITHOUT NUCLEAR WINTER-by the design of the warheads on Minuteman-3 and Trident-2 and by attacking nothing but missile silos. CND Information Officer David Guinness said, "It's only for Blackmail !" Blackmailing the Russians ? Remember, according to Bob Aldridge the US Navy can track and destroy all enemy submarines simultaneously. They are bloody crazy fools building even more nuclear weapons. But they are happy in Cadiz. More business after 4 US warships with missiles were stationed there. How many Dollars do they get in Romania? And in Poland?
Since Russian missile technology is 25 years ahead of anything the US fascist regime can come up with, Satan is still at the top but there´s always room for improvement..