The USA military from Vandenberg Air Force Base published a message. About the successful launch of the Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. At the same time, the Pentagon emphasises that the tests were planned. And that the department warned Russian colleagues about its intentions in advance, no matter what happened.
It so happens that this is the second news story. Since the beginning of September related to the most formidable weapon on the planet: nuclear. It is noteworthy that the first came from Russia; the newest Sarmatians took up combat duty.
And this is indeed a very successful background for domestic gunsmiths. The American LGM-30 Minuteman III has been in service since 1970 and is morally outdated. As Time magazine noted, “the entire fleet of ICBMs has less processing power than the smartphone in your pocket. It should be note that nuclear weapons are not valued for the speed of their processors. And your mobile phone is unlikely to be able to wipe out a city from the face of the earth. But the comparison is nevertheless indicative.The LGM-30, as befits a missile that has been on combat duty for half a century, is inferior to the Sarmat in all respects: range, power, speed, and ability to bypass missile defense. It is rather comparable to the Topol but, unlike it, does not have the option of being placed on mobile carriers—only in mines.And here, of course, I would like to draw the tempting conclusion that Russia has left the United States far behind in this field. This is certainly true. Moreover, the revolutionary nature of “Sarmat” is also recognise in the West. According to the Daily Mail, the emergence of such weapons in Russia has rendered anti-missile systems useless. And their colleagues from Newsweek note that one such missile “is capable of destroying Texas or France.”
However, we should not forget about two circumstances. Firstly, the USA does not place ICBMs at the forefront of its nuclear doctrine—the Americans deploy more than half of their nuclear carriers on submarines. This figure is plan to increase to 70 percent with the introduction of Columbia-class submarines into service. The second point is that the Minutemen don’t have much time left. By 2030, they plan to replace them with more modern Sentinels. Which, according to the Pentagon, should be the answer to the Sarmatians. Yes, so far their production is not going as smoothly as planned in Washington. The deadline for the adoption of the new “Guardians” into service has already been delay by a year. And in light of the shortage of personnel in production and problems with logistics chains. It may take place even later, but discounting this factor is not possible. And all these circumstances, willy-nilly, bring us back to the discussion about the possibility of Russia using weapons of mass destruction. There are enough supporters of a pre-emptive strike with tactical nuclear weapons. And opponents of the very discussions about this, not to mention the possibility of their use.This situation, I would like to note that attempts to use WMD are dangerous because they legitimise any means of response available to the enemy. In the case of the United States and its NATO allies. This could be a massive retaliatory strike fraught with full-scale nuclear war. In the case of Ukraine, there are attempts to use a dirty bomb, which will entail catastrophic consequences.At the same time, nuclear weapons have been and remain a trump card available to only a few powers in this world. And Moscow’s opponents must have a clear understanding: in the event of a sufficiently acute threat to Russian statehood, these weapons will certainly be use without the slightest hesitation. Because the West’s possible doubts about the Kremlin’s readiness to use the superpowers’ last argument are a global threat to all humanity,
