Lurking the depths of international waters, there are strategic ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) waiting to carry out national-level orders to deliver nuclear destruction of adversary targets. Until that chilling moment comes, SSBNs remain five (soon to be six) nations’ most-survivable strategic deterrence delivery platforms. Their role is as much about deterring a nuclear attack as actually carrying out such a launch mission. SSBNs found their place in the Russian strategic triad early in the Cold War, yet today their operational readiness (and role as a deterrent) appears threatened – from their own nation.
Building, operating and maintaining a mission-ready SSBN force is an immensely expensive commitment. First, if national leadership relies on nuclear deterrence as a maxim of their national security strategy, they need to back that with shrewd decision-making and enforce effective prioritization of scarce resources. Second, the nation must operate with sound economic principles and diverse investments for its future. Finally, building and keeping a strong technology sector with a talented workforce is paramount. Russia is failing in all of these essential criteria.
In August 2009, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin recently identified “maintenance and development of the nuclear capability” a military budget priority, yet according to defense industry reporting, Russian defense budgets suffer roughly 40% losses due to corruption annually. This is not an atmosphere that represents stability in Russian defense leadership.
Russia’s economy is extremely reliant upon gas and oil exports. Operating as a monopolistic energy provider in Eurasia does not provide enough diversity to absorb difficult economic downtur...
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...This next generation SSBN-SLBM combination is dismally more of the same for the Russian nuclear submarine program. Between 2000 and 2008, there were four Russian nuclear submarine mishaps (2 sank, 2 caught fire), killing 149 sailors, including the entire crew of the Kursk.
Russia has a litany of problems it must resolve in order to restore confidence to the maritime leg of their nuclear deterrence triad with some expectation of certainty. In the meantime, the U.S. national command authority and the intelligence community must reassess our position of ongoing strategic arms talks with Russia, ensuring their current SSBN program situation is part of our negotiating calculus. Equally important, our leadership must reassess our own SSBN fleet; to include the spectrum of resources and technological edge we are committing to enable our nuclear deterrence capability.
The Trident Submarine houses twenty-four nuclear warheads with each having a range of 4,600 miles over land. If a nuclear war were to break out between the Soviet Union and the United States, virtually every major city could be destroyed in a matter of hours. The origin of these major players in modern day warfare lies in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
The Web. 16 Feb. 2014 "Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialist Republics). " International Military and Defense Encyclopedia. Ed. Trevor N. Dupuy, a.k.a.
Following the conclusion of the Second World War, the United States and the Soviet Union made it a priority to outdo each other in every possible facet from arsenals of missiles to international alliances and spheres of influences. Yet when the Soviets launched Sputnik on October 4th, 1957, the world changed forever. The first manmade object was fired into space, and it appeared that American technology and science had fallen behind. Yet, the public feared that not only were they now technologically inferior to the Soviets, but also deduced that if a satellite could be launched into space, a nuclear missile could just as likely reach the mainland United States. Less than a month later, the Soviets pushed the bounds of technology yet again by
...would be determined only after a comprehensive review of possible implications. Moreover, as stated in the 1994 Defence White Paper, Canadian involvement would have to be cost-effective, make an unambiguous contribution to Canadian defence requirements and build upon missions already performed by the Canadian Forces, such as surveillance and communications. Also, Canadian involvement would be predicated on the proposed system being compliant with the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, or an updated treaty negotiated with Russia, as well as other arms control and disarmament agreements, protocols and arrangements.
The current events showed that there are far more potential shatterbelts in the World that it may seem at first. The Ukrainian shatterbelt although is still potential, it created a deterioration in international relations that they have not seen since the Cold War. Russia’s economy cannot potentially last another Cold War. The current events will most likely lead to Russia’s relative isolation from the international community and lead its economy to stagnation, because there is no sight that Russia will give up Crimea. The “sanction war” between Russia and The West will continue on until a consensus is reached.
After the Korean War, it was believed that the United States’ nuclear build-up had played a key role in achieving armistice. At this time, early in President Eisenhower's term in office, he had announced his policy of nuclear superiority. During this time period of nuclear build up, the Soviet Union began to find ways to overcome deficiencies in their strategic technologies2. Not soon after Eisenhower made his policy known, Russia became the first country to successfully test ICBMs, or Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. These tactical nuclear weapons are land based rocket propelled vehicles capable of intercontinental range in excess of 4000 nautical miles....
Consequently, Russia offers U.S. businesses both high risk, and potentially high rewards. Russian firms and customers admire U.S. technology and know-how, and generally are interested in doing business with U.S. companies. At the same time, there is a tendency in some quarters to suppose that the U.S. is responsible for the changes which have occurred in Russia, especially those which have caused most hardship to individuals and to industry. This sentiment has attracted the support of some political leaders, and in given credence by a significant proportion of the populace. At the same time, a strong U.S. commercial presence is viewed in the Russian Far East as a counterbalance to other regional economic powers.
Russia, on the other hand, has a technologically superior military over China, a very large source of...
Russia is the largest country in the world in terms of area and the world’s ninth most populous nation with 143 million people. Due to its large area the country is situated in 4 different climate zones and has vast natural resources. Russia also has a unique geographic position with the 14 border countries, bounded by 3 out of 4 world oceans, facilitating the build of international and domestic supply chains. Russia is one of the most technologically advanced economies in the world with a very big and well-educated work force and one of the largest consumer markets. The Russian economy is commodity-driven and is the world’s largest producer of oil (12%), natural gas (18%) and nickel (20%).
(1) After the end of World War II, all involved countries, with no exception of being victorious or defeated, have started seeking of the prevention of a new disaster by reconstructing and maintaining the security and peace primarily in Europe. All huge and disastrous events (such as World Wars) which affected whole world were originated from the uncomfortable conditions and conflicts in the continent. Thus the main task was to settle a mechanism that would eliminate any emerging threat against the continental security and maintain the order and peace. For this purpose, in 1949 West European countries established the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in order to protect the member countries against any possible attack which was primarily expected from the East European Countries led by the Soviet Union. During the Cold War, NATO’s primary goal was to circumvent any aggression held by the iron-curtain countries. Military deterrence (by developing high-tech and nuclear weapons and locating them to the eastern frontier of the Alliance, Germany and Turkey) was the main strategy in preventing any large-scale attack from the Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact countries. By the end of Cold War many debates were made and still is going on whether the Alliance completed its mission in the territory. In spite of all, The North Atlantic Treaty has continued to guarantee the security of its member countries ever since. Today, following t...
The application of nuclear power systems to the strategic defense was predicted on assumptions and increasingly were subject to question:
... and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the Limitation of Anti-Ballistic Missile Systems." U.S. Department of State. U.S. Department of State, n.d. Web. 06 May 2014.
The Russo-Chechen war that ended in 1996 should have given the Russian government a feel of things to come when they decided to attack in late September of last year. Triggered by security challenges to the State, Russia decided that the democracy would be in danger if they didn’t act. Russia was in a politically unstable situation right now with the resignation of Yeltsin, and the current Presidential elections looming. Also looming on the political horizon was the concern over rampant corruption in the government. If they had done nothing Yeltsin’s party would have stood to lose, yet Putin, (Yeltsin’s successor) succeeded in focusing the medias attention on the war rather that the domestic corruption.
Russian Crime organizations have grown to a high number since the end of the Cold War. The Nuclear Black market is no stranger to the Russian Mafia. Russia may be poised to sell nuclear weapons to the highest bidder as organized crime expands its influence in Russian society (Phinney). Some of the 200 Russian organized crime groups now operate worldwide, including in the United states and gaining the ability to manipulate its banking system and financial markets (Phinney). Roughly two-thirds of Russia’s economy is under sway of crime syndicates, and protection rackets have been the norm since the collapse of communism(Phinney). The Russian Mafia and the antifada