How much is Russia’s nuclear potential worth? News. Last Minute France, England, Russia headlines and events

In a speech today, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is suspending his participation in the new START agreement reached in 2010 with the United States, which limits the number of nuclear weapons that both nuclear powers can deploy. Noting that new strategic systems were on alert, Putin said that Moscow could also start nuclear tests.

So what is the size of the nuclear power that Russia has? Who commands Russia’s nuclear weapons?

nuclear superpower

Having adopted the Soviet Union’s nuclear weapons, Russia is the country with the largest number of nuclear warheads in the world.

As of 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin has about 5,977 nuclear warheads under his control. According to the think tank of the Federation of American Scientists, the number of nuclear warheads under the control of US President Joe Biden is 5528 units.

About 1,500 of these warheads are probably still intact but have been scrapped. 2,889 nuclear warheads are considered reserve and 1,588 are considered strategic deployed warheads.

According to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, about 812 warheads are deployed on ground-based ballistic missiles, 576 on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and about 200 on heavy bomber bases.

According to the Federation of American Scientists, there are about 1,644 strategic nuclear warheads deployed in the United States. China has 350 deployed strategic nuclear warheads, France 290 and the UK 225.

These figures suggest that both Moscow and Washington can wreak havoc on the world many times over.

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union had no more than 40,000 nuclear warheads. The maximum number of nuclear warheads America had was about 30,000.

But the key question is how to launch nuclear warheads from missiles, submarines and bombers.

Russia is believed to have about 400 ICBMs equipped with nuclear warheads. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists estimates that these missiles are capable of carrying 1,185 warheads.

Russia also has 10 nuclear submarines and nuclear submarines capable of carrying a maximum of 800 warheads and 60 to 70 nuclear bombers.

new nuclear weapons

Russia and China are scaling up their nuclear powers and modernizing their nuclear capabilities, according to a report published by the Nuclear Posture Review in 2022, which assesses US nuclear capability, power and policy. The report notes that Washington will adopt a gun control approach to curb a costly arms race.

Putin, on the other hand, said he was aware that the United States was developing a new type of nuclear weapon.

Russia, on the other hand, is modernizing its nuclear weapons.

Few countries have tested nuclear weapons since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, according to the nonpartisan Arms Control Association, which was formed to promote arms control policy. The United States last tested a nuclear weapon in 1992, China and France in 1996, India and Pakistan in 1998, and North Korea in 2017.

The last time the Soviet Union conducted nuclear tests was in 1990.

Who gives orders for the use of nuclear weapons in Russia?

According to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, the President of Russia has the last word on the use of both strategic and non-strategic nuclear weapons in the country.

The bag with Russian nuclear codes, named after the Cheget hill in the Caucasus mountains, is always with the President of Russia. It is assumed that the Russian Defense Minister (now Sergei Shoigu) and the Chief of the General Staff (now Valery Gerasimov) carry similar bags.

A bag called “Cheget” allows the President of Russia to communicate with the highest ranks of the military authority. This connection is provided by a highly confidential electronic command and control network called Kazbek. The Kazbek system supports another system known as the Caucasus.

Footage broadcast by the Russian TV channel Zvezda in 2019 shows buttons inside one of the bags with nuclear codes. It was seen that there were two buttons in the command compartment inside the bag, with the white button showing “start” and the red button “cancel” the hulls. According to Zvezda, the activation of the bag is carried out through a special information card.

If Russia thinks it is in danger of a strategic nuclear attack, the president sends direct launch instructions through nuclear pouches to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and reserve command units with nuclear codes. These instructions are transmitted step by step from various communication systems to the Strategic Missile Forces, and nuclear weapons are dropped on America or Europe.

If any nuclear attack on Russia is confirmed, President Putin could activate the Perimeter system, known as the Dead Hand, as a final step. This system means computers determine when the world will end and a control missile orders nuclear strikes from Russia’s vast arsenal.

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