Russia Building Nuclear-Armed Drone Submarine - Bill Gertz - http://freebeacon.com/national-security/russia-building-nuclear-armed-drone-submarine/
'Kanyon' unmanned sub to target harbors, cities
Russia is building a drone submarine to deliver large-scale nuclear weapons against U.S. harbors and coastal cities, according to Pentagon officials.
The developmental unmanned underwater vehicle, or UUV, when deployed, will be equipped with megaton-class warheads capable of blowing up key ports used by U.S. nuclear missile submarines, such as Kings Bay, Ga., and Puget Sound in Washington state.
Details of the secret Russian nuclear UUV program remain closely held within the U.S. government.
The Pentagon, however, has code-named the drone "Kanyon," an indication that the weapon is a structured Russian arms program.
The nuclear drone submarine is further evidence of what officials say is an aggressive strategic nuclear forces modernization under President Vladimir Putin. The building is taking place as the Obama administration has sought to reduce the role of nuclear arms in U.S. defenses and to rely on a smaller nuclear force for deterrence.
Officials familiar with details of the Kanyon program said the weapon is envisioned as an autonomous submarine strike vehicle armed with a nuclear warhead ranging in size to "tens" of megatons in yield. A blast created by a nuclear weapon that size would create massive damage over wide areas.
A megaton is the equivalent of 1 million tons of TNT.
On missiles, megaton warheads are called "city busters" designed to destroy entire metropolitan areas or to blast buried targets. An underwater megaton-class drone weapon would be used to knock out harbors and coastal regions, the officials said, declining to be named due to the sensitivity of the information.
"This is an unmanned sub that will have a high-speed and long-distance capability," said one official, who noted that the drone development is years away from a prototype and testing.
Russian nuclear buildup
The Kanyon appears to be part of a Russian strategic modernization effort that seeks to give Moscow the ability to coerce the United States. It is also expected to complicate the Obama administration's attempts to seek further reductions in U.S. and Russian nuclear forces after the 2010 New START arms treaty.
New arms cuts were derailed after Russia's military annexation of Crimea and continuing destabilization of eastern Ukraine, as well as by Moscow's failure to return to compliance with the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.
"It's very difficult to consider Russia a responsible party when it's developing something like this," the official said.
Another official familiar with the program said that the Kanyon will be a large nuclear-powered autonomous submarine. This official said the size of its nuclear warhead is not clear.
Russian leaders announced a new maritime strategy in July that provided hints about the new drone sub. The doctrine calls for developing innovative technologies, including unmanned underwater vehicles, IHS Jane's 360 reported last month.
The new underwater nuclear weapon is also raising concerns among Pentagon strategic planners. The Navy, in particular, is worried about the Kanyon. Navy forces are charged with conducting underwater warfare operations, including countering enemy submarines.
Lt. Col. Michelle Baldanza, a Pentagon spokeswoman, declined to comment on the nuclear-armed underwater drone.
The Pentagon said last week that it is closely watching a Russian military research ship that sailed along the east coast of the United States. The ship, a research vessel called the Yantar, was engaged in underwater reconnaissance, gathering intelligence that could be used to support a weapon system like the nuclear UUV.
While the United States currently has no similar plans for a megaton-class underwater nuclear strike vehicle, the Navy is developing a range of UUVs, including a weapons-carrying drone.
The Pentagon is in the process of retiring all of its megaton weapons. The stockpile of 9-megaton B53 bunker-buster bombs were dismantled several years ago, and the 1.2 megaton-B83 will be retired after the upgraded B61 bomb is deployed.
Russia's arsenal of megaton warheads and bombs includes an estimated five SS-18s armed with 20-megaton warheads and previously deployed 5-megaton warheads on SS-19s. Moscow once built the largest nuclear weapon, the 150-megaton bomb called the Tsar Bomba, or "Tsar of bombs."
China uses megaton warheads on its DF-5A missiles. The two-dozen DF-5As are said to be armed with 5-megaton warheads.
Goal: causing catastrophic damage
"The Kanyon represents another example of Russia's aggressive and innovative approach to the development of military capabilities against U.S. and Western interests," said Jack Caravelli, a former CIA analyst who specialized in Soviet and Russian affairs.
"The possible yield of the warhead, in the megaton class, clearly is an attempt to inflict catastrophic damage against U.S. or European naval facilities or coastal cities," he added. "Nations vote with their resources, and the Kanyon, along with an expanding number of other military modernization programs, indicates the priority Vladimir Putin places on military preparedness against the West."
Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon nuclear policymaker, said Russian state-run media have announced plans for UUV development.
"In 2014, Putin stated that there were undisclosed strategic nuclear modernization programs that would be made public at the appropriate time," Schneider said.
A Russian weapons engineer told the state-run RIA Novosti news agency in June that UUVs are being developed.
"Our institute already concluded a number of new developments in the sphere of command systems automation... [including] remotely-operated, unmanned sea-based underwater vehicles. We hope that these developments will be applied for designing of a new destroyer vessel," said Lev Klyachko, director of the Russian Central Research Institute.
Moscow nuclear threats worrying
Robert Kehler, who retired two years ago as commander of the U.S. Strategic Command, said development of a robot underwater nuclear strike vehicle could be part of what he termed a "troubling" Russian strategic nuclear buildup.
"Overall, we were watching the Russian nuclear modernization effort very carefully," Kehler said in an interview. "And that effort was finally starting to put forces in the field."
Kehler said he was not "particularly bothered" by the Russian nuclear buildup as long as Moscow stays within the limits of the New START arms treaty. The treaty limits the United States and Russia to 700 strategic missiles and bombers and a total of 1,550 deployed strategic warheads. The retired four-star Air Force general said he was unaware of the Kanyon drone program.
However, recent threats and belligerent statements by Russian leaders about using nuclear weapons are compounding concerns about Moscow's arms buildup.
"That was disturbing as well, their rhetoric," Kehler said. "Again, that said something about how nuclear weapons fit in their national security. From their perspective, they're saying, 'We still need these weapons.'"
Putin has stated publicly that he is willing to use Russia's nuclear forces in response to Western opposition to the military annexation of Ukraine's Crimea.
Pavel Felgenhauer, a Russian military analyst, said he has not heard about the Kanyon program. "But such things could have easily been developed during the Cold War and may be still being developed or modernized," he said.
Felgenhauer said a nuclear drone submarine would involve launch from a mother sub and would require getting close to a target, something he said would result in a "semi-suicidal" bombing run.
Russia has researched exotic nuclear weapons concepts in the past, including underwater blasts aimed at creating massive tsunamis, like those caused by undersea earthquakes, he said.
However, Felgenhauer said he does not believe the underwater nuclear drone would be a mainstream weapons development program for Moscow.
Based on Soviet nuclear torpedo
Norman Polmar, a naval analyst and author, said the Kanyon could be based on a Soviet-era nuclear torpedo disclosed in his 2003 book, Cold War Submarines.
Both the Russian navy and its predecessor, the Soviet navy, have been innovators of undersea systems and weapons. "These efforts have included the world's most advanced torpedoes," Polmar said. "Early in the nuclear age, the Soviets began development of a massive torpedo for attacking coastal cities and ports."
The T-15 torpedo was about 75 feet long and was capable of carrying a high-yield thermonuclear warhead some 15 miles underwater, something Polmar called "a truly innovative concept."
The Navy is developing UUVs as well, including some capable of conducting strike operations. No details of the Navy's underwater drone program could be learned.
A 2004 Navy study on the subject lists nine functions for underwater drones, ranging from intelligence gathering to anti-mine warfare to special operations delivery and "time critical strike."
"Warfighters need the ability to strike time critical targets at precisely the right moment in battle," the Navy study said. "UUVs can perform some of the necessary functions for [time critical strike], for example, clandestine weapon delivery or remote launch."
"Stealth and long-standoff distance and duration allow a UUV to be an effective weapon platform or weapon cache delivery vehicle for TCS missions."
The UUV is part of a major nuclear modernization by Russia that includes a new class of ballistic missile submarine called the Borey-class, and a new submarine-launched missile, the Bulava.
Two new intercontinental ballistic missiles are being deployed as well, along with development of three more new ICBMs, including a replacement for the SS-18 and a new rail-mobile missile. A new strategic bomber is also under development, and there are reported plans to restart production of the Tu-160 Blackjack bomber.
Russia is also developing a new long-range, air-launched nuclear-tipped cruise missile, the KH-101, which will be capable of hitting targets in the United States from launch areas within Russian airspace.
Navy seeking UUVs
Navy Secretary Ray Maybus said in a speech in April that unmanned systems are a high priority for future Navy weapons.
"While unmanned technology itself is not new, the potential impact these systems will have on the way we operate is almost incalculable," Maybus said.
The submarine warfare division of the chief of naval operations stated on its website that the future submarine force will include UUVs.
"UUVs allow an [attack submarine] to safely gain access to denied areas with revolutionary sensors and weapons," the website stated. "UUVs provide unique capabilities and extend the 'reach' of our platforms while reducing the risk to an [attack submarine]" and its crew.
The site made no mention of a future UUV strike weapon, only intelligence and reconnaissance, mine warfare, and mapping.
"UUVs are key elements in maintaining submarines' future undersea dominance against any threat."
Russia 'is building military base in Syria' - Rob Crilly - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/11846382/Russia-is-building-military-base-in-Syria.html
American officials express concern about latest intelligence suggesting Moscow is preparing to send hundreds of personnel to prop up Assad regime
Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad's heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.
The anonymous officials say Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for up to 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving the Syrian port city of Latakia.
Russia has also requested the rights to fly over neighboring countries with military cargo aircraft during September, according to the reports.
The claims, which will raise fears that Russia is planning to expand its role in the country's civil war, will ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington over the future of Syria and its brutal ruler.
Mr Obama on Friday met King Salman of Saudi Arabia to repeat their demand that any lasting settlement in Syria would require an end to the Assad regime.
It leaves the US and Russia implacably opposed in their visions for Syria.
John Kerry, Secretary of State, telephoned his Russian counterpart to express US concerns on Saturday.
"The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-Isil coalition operating in Syria," the department said.
The new US details came in the week that Vladimir Putin gave his strongest admission yet that Russia was already providing some military and logistical support to Syria.
"We are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons," he said during an economic forum in Vladivostok on Friday, according to the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.
Until now, Russia's backing has included financial support, intelligence, advisers, weapons and spare parts. Mr Putin insisted it was "premature" to talk of a direct intervention.
However, images emerged last week that appeared to show a Russian fighter jet operating over Syrian soil and videos of combat troops speaking the Russian language.
Syrian state television showed images of an advanced Russian-built armored personnel carrier, the BTR-82a, in combat. Videos also began circulating in which troops shouted orders to one another in Russian.
Last week the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth cited Western diplomatic sources saying that Russia was on the verge of deploying "thousands" of troops to Syria to establish an airbase from which the Russian air force would fly combat sorties against Isil.
Those details appear to be backed by satellite images of a Russian base under construction near Latakia, according to anonymous intelligence officials quoted by several American newspapers.
"If they're moving people in to help the Syrian government fight their own fight, that's one thing," one told the Los Angeles Times. "But if they're moving in ground forces and dropping bombs on populated areas, that's an entirely different matter."
Moscow increasingly justifies its support for the Assad regime by pointing to the rise of violent jihadists in Syria.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has captured a swath of territory since Arab Spring protests in 2011 provoked a heavy-handed regime crackdown.
The conflict is one of the key drivers for the wave of refugees arriving in Europe. It was from Kobane that Aylan Kurdi and his family set out for Europe. The discovery of three-year-old's body on a Turkish beach this week has provoked a change of attitudes towards migrants.
This week, Isil stepped up its program of cultural cleansing, blowing up temples in the historic city of Palmyra.
And fresh clashes along the border with Turkey claimed the lives of 47 fighters at the weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Syria is already home to Russia's only base outside the former Soviet Union - a naval station in Tartus.
The reported build-up of military activity, centered on Latakia and Idlib province, is in areas dominated by the Alawite sect, which counts President Assad among its number.
Russian submarine with 20 ICBMs and 200 nuclear warheads is sailing to Syria - http://www.debka.com/article/24873/Russian-submarine-with-20-ICBMs-and-200-nuclear-warheads-is-sailing-to-Syria
The world's largest submarine, the Dmitri Donskoy (TK-208), Nato-coded Typhoon, has set sail for the Mediterranean and is destined for the Syrian coast, debkafile reports exclusively from its military and intelligence sources. Aboard the sub are 20 Bulava (NATO-code SS-N-30) intercontinental ballistic missiles with an estimated up to 200 nuclear warheads. Each missile, with a reported range of 10,000km, carries 6-10 MIRV nuclear warheads.
The Russian sub set sail from its North Sea base on Sept. 4, escorted by two anti-sub warfare ships. Their arrival at destination in 10 days time will top up the new Russian military deployment in Syria.
President Vladimir Putin's introduction of a nuclear force opposite Syrian shores builds up what first looked like an operation to fortify Assad's regime in Damascus into a military expedition capable of an air and sea confrontation with US forces in the Middle East.
US Secretary of State John Kerry suggested as much Saturday, Sept. 5, when he expressed concern over reports of Russia's "increasing military build-up in Syria" in a phone call to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The State Department reported: "The Secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL coalition operation in Syria."
Kerry was referring to potential Russian interference with US-led coalition air strikes against the Islamic State in Syria.
debkafile's sources in Washington and Moscow report that the dispatch of a nuclear sub to Syrian waters is taken as a strong message that the Kremlin will not let the US impede its military intervention in the Syrian conflict and will go to extreme lengths to keep the way open for the flow of Russian troops to the war-torn country.
This situation has gone a long way beyond Obama administration intentions when US-Russian talks were initially held for US forces posted in Turkey and Iraq, together with the Russian troops arriving in Syria, to launch a combined effort against the Islamic State. Those talks came to naught.
In its coming issue out Friday, Sept. 11, DEBKA Weekly 678 will reveal for the first time how Putin intends to array the Russian forces he is consigning to Syria, their operational planning, their military coordination with Iran and, above all, how the new Russian intervention in Syria may impact US Middle East policy and Israel.
Russia Lands Ground Troops In Syria As Players For Ezekiel 39 Begin To Gather - Geoffrey Grider - http://www.nowtheendbegins.com/blog/?p=35415
Russian forces have begun participating in military operations in Syria in support of government troops, three Lebanese sources familiar with the political and military situation there said on Wednesday.
"Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand. Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands, and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured." Ezekiel 39:1-4 (KJV)
EDITOR'S NOTE: In Ezekiel 39, we see the Battle of Armageddon taking place after Russia surrounds Israel. Establishing a beachfront in Syria, Israel's next door neighbor. is a great place to start. The "ravenous birds" from Ezekiel 39:4 are the same flesh-eating birds mentioned in Revelation 19:17 & 18 where it talks about the Battle of Armageddon, so we have harmony. Ezekiel 38 talks about the Battle of Gog and Magog which takes place after the 1,000 Year Reign of Jesus in Jerusalem.
The sources, speaking to Reuters on condition they not be identified, gave the most forthright account yet from the region of what the United States fears is a deepening Russian military role in Syria's civil war, though one of the Lebanese sources said the number of Russians involved so far was small.
The U.S. officials, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intent of Russia's military moves in Syria was unclear. One suggested the focus may be on preparing an airfield near the port city of Latakia, a stronghold of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
U.S. officials have not ruled out the possibility that Russia may want to use the airfield for air combat missions.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Russian counterpart for the second time in four days to express concern over reports of Russian military activities in Syria, warning that it could fan more violence. The White House said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Russia says the Syrian government must be incorporated into a shared global fight against Islamic State, the Islamist group that has taken over large parts of Syria and Iraq. The United States and Assad's regional foes see him as part of the problem.
"We would welcome constructive Russian contributions to the counter-ISIL effort, but we've been clear that it would be unconscionable for any party, including the Russians, to provide any support to the Assad regime," White House spokesman Eric Schultz said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
SYRIAN TROOPS PULLING BACK
Assad's forces have faced big setbacks on the battlefield in a four-year-old multi-sided civil war that has killed 250,000 people and driven half of Syria's 23 million people from their homes.
Syrian troops pulled out of a major air base last Wednesday, and a monitoring group said this meant government soldiers were no longer present at all in Idlib province, most of which slipped from government control earlier this year.
Moscow confirmed it had "experts" on the ground in Syria, its long-time ally in the Middle East.
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