Russian General Demands Preemptive Nuclear Strike Doctrine Against NATO
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 09/04/2014 23:07 -0400
While NATO is contemplating its existential purpose in a world where the Cold War has suddenly come back with a vengeance, and the military alliance has found itself woefully unprepared to deal with a Russia which no longer accepts the supremacy of the west (appropriately enough NATO is doing this on a golf course) Russia is also strategizing, only instead of issuing "sharply-worded catchphrases" and hashtags, a Russian general has called for Russia to revamp its military doctrine, last updated in 2010, to clearly identify the U.S. and its NATO allies as Moscow's enemy number one. That in itself is not disturbing: we reported as much yesterday and is merely more rhetorical posturing. Where things, however, get very problematic is that the general demands that Russia spell out the conditions under which the country would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the 28-member military alliance.
Moscow Times reports that Russia's military doctrine, a strategy document through which the government interprets military threats and crafts possible responses, is being revised in light of threats connected to the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Ukraine, the deputy chief of the Kremlin's security council told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
That however is the soundbite for politically correct media purposes. Because within the Defense Ministry there are voices calling for different priorities.
"First and foremost, the likely enemy of Russia should be clearly identified in this strategic document, something absent from the 2010 military doctrine. In my view, our primary enemy is the U.S. and the North Atlantic bloc," General Yury Yakubov, a senior Defense Ministry official, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
If this sounds like a statement taken right out of the (first) Cold War, one involving the whole nuclear arms race, is because it is. The 2010 doctrine defines NATO expansion as a threat to Russian national security and reaffirms its right to use nuclear weapons in a defensive posture, but stops far short of declaring NATO as Moscow's primary adversary and laying preemptive nuclear strike scenarios on the table, a posture unmistakably reminiscent of the Cold War.
At the basis of this dramatic escalation is none other than Russia's stated response to what it perceives as a clear expansionary NATO threat.
Yakubov said the information war being waged over the crisis in Ukraine - where the West accuses Russia of arming separatists fighting the government in Kiev - and NATO's announcement that it would establish a permanent military presence in Eastern Europe have validated earlier fears that the alliance's claims of non-aggression toward Russia were insincere.
And the punchline: the general added that special attention should be paid to integrating the functions of the newly created Air and Space Defense Forces with Russia's land, sea and air based nuclear forces. "In addition, it is necessary to hash out the conditions under which Russia could carry out a preemptive strike with the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces," he said.
One can be certain that this is precisely what Russia will do.
So what happens next?
Recall what former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said in November 2008 in his first presidential address to the Russian people: "Russia will deploy Iskander missile systems in its enclave in Kaliningrad to neutralize, if necessary, the anti-ballistic missile system in Europe." An anti-ballistic missle system also known as NATO.
Which it did less than a year ago, long before the Ukraine civil war was headline news every day. This is what happened the last time Russia flexed its nuclear deterrence muscles, in November of 2013.
Russia has stationed missiles with a range of about 500 kilometers in its Kaliningrad enclave and along its border with the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Germany's Bild-Zeitung reports, citing defense officials it didn't identify. Satellite images show a "double-digit" amount of mobile units identified as SS-26 Stone in NATO code. Missiles were stationed within the past 12 months. SS-26 can carry conventional as well as nuclear warheads.
Russian strategic bombers reportedly practice nuclear missile strike against US - http://rt.com/usa/186084-russian-bombers-labrador-gertz/
A pair of Russian bomber jets reportedly practiced cruise missile attacks against targets in the United States last week, according to a report published on Monday in the Washington Free Beacon.
Bill Gertz, a writer for the Beacon, reported that two Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying over the Labrador Sea last week in the northern Atlantic Ocean near Iceland, Greenland and Canada as part of a recent training mission.
"Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined 'launch box' - an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at US targets," Gertz wrote, citing unnamed defense officials he described as being familiar with intelligence reports.
The aircraft, Gertz added, are outfitted with six AS-15 nuclear-armed cruise missiles, each capable of striking targets as far away as 1,800 miles.
Representatives for the US Northern Command and Northern American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, declined to comment to Gertz ahead of his report, and told RT in an email Monday afternoon that they could not confirm the allegations printed by the Free Beacon. On his part, however, Gertz wrote that neither the US nor Canada responded to the alleged incident because it reportedly occurred outside of the North American Air Defense Identification Zone.
According to Gertz, the reported drill occurred last week at the same time that officials from the US, Canada and other allied partners met in Wales for the largest NATO summit of its kind in two years, where on the agenda, among other topics, was the escalating crisis in eastern Ukraine and potential action that could be undertaken to counter perceived Russian aggression. On the heels of that meeting, both the US and the European Union are expected to impose new sanctions against Moscow.
The latest report comes days after Russia's own recent decision to revise a 2010 military doctrine to identify the US and NATO members as enemies, which "clearly outline[s] the conditions of a preemptive nuclear strike" against partner countries, Gertz wrote. With regards to the alliance, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said during last week's summit that at least 4,000 troops from various member states will soon form a "spearhead" regiment that will be "ready to deploy within a few days with air, sea and Special Forces support" in the event that the Ukrainian crisis spread into allied territory.
Gertz has previously reported for the Beacon that no fewer than 16 Russian bombers incurred the airspace of either US or Canada during the month of August.
"Clearly, we at the US Strategic Command do monitor the strategic environment, "Admiral Cecil Haney, commander of the US Strategic Command, told Gertz last month following reports that Russian bombers came within 50 miles of California on the US West Coast. "I will say that the business of them coming close to the United States of America, we take very seriously."
Meanwhile NATO countries boost their presence in the vicinity of Russian borders. US, Spain, Canada, Romania and Turkey sent warships to take part in the joint naval exercises with Ukraine 'Sea Breeze 2014' in the Black Sea. A total of 12 ships and supply vessels - including seven Ukrainian ships - as well as planes and helicopters will participate in the drills.
NATO ships have been operating in the area since this spring, when tensions started escalating between Kiev forces and rebels in eastern Ukraine. Despite the three-week limit, set up by the Montreux Convention for non-Black Sea states' warships, the alliance has managed to secure its presence in the area by constantly rotating vessels there.
Putin promises new weapons to fend Western threats - Vladimir Isachenkov - http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/E/EU_RUSSIA_PUTIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-10-10-40-17
Russia will counter military moves by the U.S. and NATO with an array of new nuclear and conventional weapons, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday as the military successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear submarine.
At the same time, he emphasized that Russia will not enter a new arms race and will tightly control its military budget to avoid overburdening the economy.
Putin accused the West of using the crisis in Ukraine to reinvigorate NATO, warning that Moscow will ponder a response to the alliance's decision to create a rapid-reaction "spearhead" force to protect Eastern Europe.
The statement appeared to signal that the Russian leader is determined to pursue a tough course in the face of more Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis that has sent Russia-West relations plummeting to their lowest point since the Cold War.
Addressing a Kremlin meeting on weapons modernization, Putin ominously warned the West against getting "hysterical" about Moscow's re-arming efforts, in view of U.S. missile defense plans and other decisions he said have challenged Russia's security.
"We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding countermeasures to ensure our security," Putin said, adding that he would now take personal charge of the government commission overseeing military industries. "I would like to underline that we only take retaliatory steps."
Putin claimed that some in the West would like to pull Russia into a new arms race, but "we will not enter such race, it's absolutely excluded."
He argued that Russia needs to upgrade its arsenals to replace Soviet-designed weapons approaching the end of their designated lifetime.
Putin's comments came as the European Union was mulling a new wave of sanctions against Russia intended to persuade it to honor its part of a cease-fire agreement signed last week. A decision is expected later this week.
Putin said Russia's weapons modernization program for 2016-2025 should focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent;" re-arming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defense system and developing high-precision conventional weapons.
He would not elaborate on prospective weapons, but he and other officials have repeatedly boasted about new Russian nuclear missiles' capability to penetrate any prospective missile shield.
The Kremlin has bolstered defense spending in the past few years under an ambitious weapons modernization program that runs through 2020 and costs the equivalent of $540 billion.
Russia inherited most of its arsenal from the Soviet Union and has struggled to develop new weapons systems after the post-Soviet industrial meltdown. With hundreds of subcontractors going out of production, Russian arms manufacturers often had to make components themselves, swelling costs and affecting production quality.
The difficulties faced by the Russian arms industry have been highlighted by the long and painful development of the Bulava intercontinental ballistic missile, which has suffered repeated launch failures.
Its designers finally seem to have cured the glitches, and the navy boasted of a successful launch of the Bulava from a nuclear submarine on Wednesday. Two more launches are set for the fall.
Putin's emphasis on high-precision conventional weapons reflected government concerns about the U.S. and other NATO countries enjoying a significant edge in that area.
The comparative weakness of Russia's conventional arsenals have prompted Russia to rely increasingly on a nuclear deterrent, with the nation's military doctrine envisaging the possibility that Russia may use nuclear weapons first in response to a conventional aggression.
Talking about potential threats, the Russian president specifically pointed at the U.S. missile defense program and Washington's plans to develop new conventional weapons that could strike targets anywhere in the world in as little as an hour with deadly precision.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of weapons industries, told reporters after the meeting that Russia will respond to the U.S. challenge by developing its strategic nuclear forces and aerospace defenses. Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the military will focus on developing defensive systems to counter the so-called Prompt Global Strike programs developed by the United States, but could also develop a Russian analogue of that, according to the Interfax news agency.
Putin said Russian defense industries must rid themselves of a dependence on imports and quickly become capable of producing key components at home.
Faced with a pro-Russian insurgency in the east backed by Moscow, Ukraine has already cut arms exports to Russia. They include missile components, helicopter engines and turbines for naval ships that Russian arms makers may find hard to replace. Western nations also have cut exports of military components to Russia.
Ukraine and the West have repeatedly accused Moscow of fueling the insurgency in mostly Russian-speaking east of the country with arms, expertise and even its own troops, accusations Russia denies. In late August, NATO estimated that more than 1,000 Russian troops were operating on Ukrainian soil, helping to turn the tide of the war in the rebels' favor.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Wednesday that a cease-fire deal signed last week in Belarus envisaged the "restoration and preservation of Ukrainian sovereignty" over the regions engulfed by the mutiny.
"Ukraine has made no concessions with regards to its territorial integrity," Poroshenko said during a televised Cabinet meeting.
He sought to cast the deal as a victory, saying that since the agreement, 70 percent of the Russian troops in Ukraine have been withdrawn.
He also said 700 Ukrainian prisoners had been freed from rebel captivity and expressed hope that another 500 would be freed by the end of the week.
While Obama Snoozes, Russia Is Preparing for Nuclear War with the United States - By Michael Snyder - http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/while-obama-snoozes-russia-is-preparing-for-nuclear-war-with-the-united-states
Did you know that two Russian bombers practiced launching cruise missiles at the United States from a spot in the North Atlantic just the other day? And did you know that Russia is spending massive amounts of money to build and test new nuclear weapons systems? Meanwhile, the Obama administration is doing absolutely nothing to upgrade the U.S. nuclear arsenal. Our nuclear officers are actually still using floppy disks and other computer technology from the 1960s. The size of the U.S. nuclear arsenal has been reduced by about 95 percent from the peak of the Cold War, and Barack Obama has spoken of even more dramatic reductions. Obama is snoozing even as a Russian general speaks of the need to "spell out the conditions under which Russia would launch a preemptive nuclear strike" against the United States. Obama appears to be entirely convinced that a nuclear war between the U.S. and Russia is not even a remote possibility. He better be right, because we are definitely not prepared for one.
Even with everything that has happened between the United States and Russia lately, most Americans still believe that "the Cold War is over" and that Russia presents absolutely no threat to us.
But Russia is behaving as if the Cold War is still very much on. You probably didn't hear a peep about it from the mainstream media, but just the other day a couple of Russian bombers simulated launching cruise missiles at us from the North Atlantic. The following is an excerpt from an excellent article by Bill Gertz...
Two Russian strategic bombers conducted practice cruise missile attacks on the United States during a training mission last week that defense officials say appeared timed to the NATO summit in Wales.
The Russian Tu-95 Bear bombers were tracked flying a route across the northern Atlantic near Iceland, Greenland, and Canada's northeast.
Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined "launch box"-an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at U.S. targets, said defense officials familiar with intelligence reports.
And Russia is spending money as if a nuclear confrontation with the U.S. is a very real possibility. In fact, Russian President Vladimir Putin has committed to a "weapons modernization program" that is going to cost the equivalent of 540 billion dollars...
Putin said Russia's weapons modernization program for 2016-2025 should focus on building a new array of offensive weapons to provide a "guaranteed nuclear deterrent;" re-arming strategic and long-range aviation; creating an aerospace defense system and developing high-precision conventional weapons.
He would not elaborate on prospective weapons, but he and other officials have repeatedly boasted about new Russian nuclear missiles' capability to penetrate any prospective missile shield.
The Kremlin has bolstered defense spending in the past few years under an ambitious weapons modernization program that runs through 2020 and costs the equivalent of $540 billion.
You don't spend that kind of money just for the fun of it.
Putin is deadly serious about being able to fight (and win) a war against the United States.
Of course nobody on either side actually hopes that such a war will happen. But most wars are won before a single shot is fired, and right now Russia is working very hard to make sure that it will have the best chance possible of coming out on top in any future conflict.
For example, Russian media is reporting that 60 percent of all Russian nuclear missiles will have radar-evading capability by 2016...
Russia's Defense Ministry plans to complete the rearmament of Strategic Missile Forces within six years. "By 2016, the share of new missile systems will reach nearly 60%, and by 2021 their share will increase to 98%. At the same time the troop and weapon command systems, combat equipment will be qualitatively improved, first of all - their capabilities for the suppression of antimissile defense will be built up," Defense Ministry's RVSN spokesman Colonel Igor Yegorov told ITAR-TASS on Friday.
But of greatest concern is the new generation of nuclear-powered attack submarines armed with long-range cruise missiles that Russia has been developing.
Just this week, Russia conducted a successful test of the new submarine-launched Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile...
Russia carried out a successful test of its new Bulava intercontinental nuclear missile on Wednesday and will perform two more test launches in October and November, the head of its naval forces said.
The armed forces have boosted their military training and test drills since the start of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, which Russia considers in its traditional sphere of influence.
The 12-meter long Bulava, or mace, has undergone numerous tests, some successful, and can deliver an impact of up to 100 times the atomic blast that devastated Hiroshima in 1945.
Each one of these missiles weighs more than 36 tons and has a range of more than 5,000 miles.
But in a future conflict, they would likely only have to travel a short distance.
That is because Russia has developed super silent attacks subs that are virtually undetectable when submerged.
In a previous article, I talked about how the U.S. Navy refers to these virtually undetectable subs as "black holes"...
Did you know that Russia is building submarines that are so quiet that the U.S. military cannot detect them? These "black hole" submarines can freely approach the coastlines of the United States without fear of being detected whenever they want. In fact, a "nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles" sailed around in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks without being detected back in 2012. And now Russia is launching a new class of subs that have "advanced stealth technology". The U.S. Navy openly acknowledges that they cannot track these subs when they are submerged. That means that the Russians are able to sail right up to our coastlines and launch nukes whenever they want.
Most Americans don't realize this, but Russian subs can come cruising right up to our coasts without us knowing about it and launch missiles which will start hitting our cities within just a few minutes.
And if you do not think that this can ever happen, perhaps you should consider what a Russian general said about a preemptive nuclear strike just the other day...
A Russian general has called for Russia to revamp its military doctrine, last updated in 2010, to clearly identify the U.S. and its NATO allies as Moscow's enemy number one and spell out the conditions under which Russia would launch a preemptive nuclear strike against the 28-member military alliance, Interfax reported Wednesday.
Russia's military doctrine, a strategy document through which the government interprets military threats and crafts possible responses, is being revised in light of threats connected to the Arab Spring, the Syrian civil war and the conflict in Ukraine, the deputy chief of the Kremlin's security council told RIA Novosti on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration has discussed reducing the size of our already neutered strategic nuclear arsenal down to just 300 warheads.
Let us hope and pray that we never see a nuclear war between the United States and Russia.
Because if one does happen, there is a very strong possibility that America will not be the winner.
BE SURE TO CHECK OUT MY PROPHECY WEBSITES...............................
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