Russia to rely increasingly on non-nuclear deterrent

Associated Press ^ | Feb 21, 2017 9:26 AM EST | Vladimir Isachenkov

[Olog-hai]

Russia will continue to see the development of its nuclear forces as a top priority, but the military will rely increasingly on conventional weapons to deter any aggression, the Russian Defense Minister said Tuesday.

Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that weapons such as the long-range Kalibr cruise missiles carried by navy ships, long-range cruise missiles carried by Russian strategic bombers and the land-based short-range Iskander missiles will play an increasingly important role as a non-nuclear deterrent. Those missiles can carry nuclear or conventional warheads.

Shoigu pointed to the new missiles’ debut in the Syrian conflict, saying they have proven themselves well.

“The development of strategic nuclear forces will remain an unconditional priority,” Shoigu said in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. “Russian nuclear weapons ensure the guaranteed deterrence of aggression by any foreign power.” …

[AppyPappy]

“Russian nuclear weapons ensure the guaranteed deterrence of aggression by any foreign power.”

Problem. The only foreign powers that could threaten Russia are impervious to those weapons. Those powers are terrorists. Like the US and China, Russia has no enemies that could knock it off its base. But terrorists could create political instability but making society unsafe.

[JerryBlackwell]

Now we can have fun extracting the underlying message from fake news: see, Russia is not using nukes so we should not either.

[RayChuang88]

Here’s the problem: the Russians have nowhere near the level of unmanned aerial vehicle technology that the USA has to fight more conventional wars. In fact, even the People’s Liberation Army of China has better drone technology than the Russians!

[McGruff]

They seem to be deterring ISIS pretty good.