Russia’s nuclear submarine fires four test missiles [Video]

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• A Russian nuclear submarine has effectively launched surface-to-air test missiles on Saturday, indicating that Moscow is ready for the tension with the West.
• Reports by Moscow’s Defense Ministry showed that the launch and tactical accuracy was a success, hitting its predetermined targets.
• The series of tests were only two months away from the expiration of the New START U.S.-Russian arms control treaty, with the extension still pending. 

On Saturday, a nuclear submarine from Russia was successful in its test in firing four transnational surface-to-air missiles as a sign of Moscow’s nuclear facilities being ready amidst growing conflict with the U.S.

The Vladimir Monomakh submarine of the Pacific Fleet, as confirmed by the Defense Ministry in a statement, fired four Bulava missiles in timed sequence from a subaquatic zone in the Sea of Okhotsk. The test weapons hit its selected targets on the Chiza firing zones in Arkhangelsk, northwest of Russia, over 5,500 kilometers or more than 3,400 miles.

The submarine is one of the latest Borei-class nuclear underwater warships that transport 16 Bulava missiles each. It is built to be the foundation of the naval constituent of the country’s nuclear powers for the upcoming decades.

In 2018, another undersea vessel of a similar capacity achieved a comparable launch of Bulava missiles, a costly show of the nation’s nuclear disincentive’s efficiency mirroring the circumstances of a significant nuclear struggle.

Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, in his report to President Vladimir Putin, said that the launch on Saturday kicked off massive drills of Russia’s tactical nuclear forces that started on Wednesday.

As a portion of those drills, another Russian nuclear vessel also did a test launch of an international air-to-air missile launching from the Barents Sea when a terrestrial ICBM was fired from the Plesetsk base at the northwest of Russia and Tu-95 and Tu-160 and tactical bombers released cruise arsenals at test sites at a Subzero range.

The country has furthered its military maneuvers in the last few years amidst tensions with the West as talks have deteriorated following post-Cold War lows after Moscow’s take over in 2014 of the Crimean Peninsula in Ukraine.

The test missile firings sequence was only two months before the New START U.S.-Russian arms control agreement expiration on February next year. Washington and Moscow have talked about the chance to extend, but no concession has been reached so far.

In 2010, the New START deal was inked by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama. The treaty restricts each country up to 1,550 installed nuclear warheads and 700 arranged artilleries and missiles with plans to have a comprehensive on-premise assessment to validate compliance.

Following the withdrawal of both Washington and Moscow from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, New START is the lone enduring nuclear arms control agreement between the two nations.

Advocates of arms control have cautioned that its end would eliminate any scrutiny on U.S. and nuclear forces in Russia, which could result in instability on a global scale.

Source: AP News