2024-07-30 14:06:38
The Kremlin reacted violently to the US decision from 2026. To deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles and long-range hypersonic weapons in Germany.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that if the US goes ahead with the plan, Russia will consider itself exempt from a previously imposed moratorium on deploying medium- and shorter-range strike systems, including beefing up its naval coastal forces.
But the main problem with this threat is that Russia has already played this card. The Kremlin is trying to intimidate by threatening to deploy medium-range missiles – when in fact it has already done so.
Putin announced that the Bastion cruise missile system could potentially be added to the Iskander missile system with P-500 missiles. The Bastion system is officially armed with 3M55 Oniks anti-ship missiles, which can also attack ground targets. The ‘M’ version of this missile is reported to have a range of 800 km, which was previously prohibited. However, it is important to note that the 3S14 universal launcher used for this missile is also used to launch standard Kalibr cruise missiles.
The Bastion system also launches the 3M22 Cirkon hypersonic missile. Its operational range is 1000 km. To achieve such a distance, the weight of the warhead had to be reduced to 150 kg. This weight is adequate for a tactical nuclear warhead, but insufficient for a fragmentation or high-explosive warhead. Therefore, the Zircon is already effectively a medium-range nuclear missile launched from ground systems.
Thus, Russia already uses ground-launched cruise missiles such as the P-500 and Kinzhal, as well as the Oniks-M and medium-range hypersonic Zircons.
In other words, the Kremlin has already taken all the actions it is now threatening. In addition, these actions led not only to the decision to deploy American missiles in Germany, but also to the fact that, in response to Russia’s actions, the EU began to develop medium-range missiles, Defense Express writes.
2024-07-30 14:06:38