Sejauh ini Putin terus coba meyakinkan dunia bahwa Rusia hanya akan menggunakan
senjata nuklirnya untuk merespon serangan nuklir terhadap Rusia. Berusaha
menunjukkan kesetiaan Rusia pada konsep no first use. Entah bagaimana dengan
para jenderal aktifnya.
Sementara, kubu Donald Trump berusaha menenangkan publik AS bahwa Rusia cuma
melebih-lebihkan kehebatan senjata nuklirnya. Tetapi Trump belum juga menuklir
Rusia. Kurang jelas bagaimana dengan para jenderal aktif Pentagon.
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Russian state TV shows map ofpotential US nuclear targets
Newhypersonic missiles could hit targets including Pentagon in under five
minutes,it claims
Reuters in Moscow
Mon 25 Feb 2019 13.22 GMT
Russianstate television has broadcast a map of the US showing military
facilitiesMoscow would target in the event of a nuclear strike, in a report
that wasunusual even by its own bellicose standards.
Thetargets included the Pentagon and the presidential retreat in Camp
David,Maryland. A hypersonic missile Russia is developing would be able to hit
themin less than five minutes, it said.
Lastweek, Vladimir Putin said Moscow was militarily ready for a
“Cubanmissile-style” crisis if the US wanted one.
Withtensions rising over Russian fears that the US might deploy
intermediate-rangenuclear missiles in Europe as a cold war-era arms-control
treaty unravels,Putin has said Russia would be forced to respond by placing
hypersonic nuclearmissiles on submarines near US waters.
TheUS said it had no immediate plans to deploy such missiles in Europe and
dismissedPutin’s warnings as disingenuous propaganda. It does not currently
haveground-based intermediate-range nuclear missiles that it could place in
Europe.
However,its decision to quit the 1987 Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF)
treatyover an alleged Russian violation, which Moscow denies, has freed it to
startdeveloping and deploying such missiles.
Putinhas said Russia does not want a new arms race, but he has dialled up
hismilitary rhetoric.
Someanalysts have seen his approach as a tactic to try to re-engage the US in
talksabout the strategic balance between the two powers, which Moscow has
longpushed for, with mixed results.
Inthe Sunday evening broadcast, Dmitry Kiselyov, the presenter of Russia’s
mainweekly TV news programme, Vesti Nedeli, showed a map of the US and
identifiedseveral targets he said Moscow would want to hit in the event of a
nuclear war.
Thetargets, which Kiselyov described as US presidential or military
commandcentres, also included Fort Ritchie, a military training centre in
Marylandclosed in 1998, McClellan air force base in California, which closed in
2001,and Jim Creek, a naval communications base in Washington state.
Kiselyov,who is close to the Kremlin, said the Tsirkon hypersonic missile that
Russiawas developing could reach their targets in less than five minutes if
launchedfrom Russian submarines.
Hypersonicflight is generally taken to mean travelling through the atmosphere
at morethan five times the speed of sound.
“Fornow, we’re not threatening anyone, but if such a deployment takes place,
ourresponse will be instant,” he said.
Kiselyovis one of the main conduits of state television’s strongly
anti-American tone,once saying Moscow could turn the US into radioactive ash.
Askedto comment on Kiselyov’s report, the Kremlin said on Monday it did
notinterfere in state TV’s editorial policy.
On Friday, March 29, 2019, 11:05:56 PM GMT+7, ajeg wrote:
USsays it won't rule out nuclear first strike, because allies wouldn't trust
itotherwise
Published time: 29 Mar, 2019 02:35 Edited time: 29Mar, 2019 09:10
APentagon official has said that the US will retain the right to carry out
anuclear strike in response to a conventional attack. A 'no-first-use'
policywould erode US allies' belief that they are protected, he said.
Washingtonhas no plans to reverse its policy of "no first use" of nukes,
whichmeans it can bomb its adversaries with nuclear weapons under
"extremecircumstances," Deputy Undersecretary of Defense DavidTrachtenberg said
in his prepared remarks to the Senate Armed ServiceCommittee hearing on
Thursday.
Trachtenbergclaimed that if the US changes its take on the issue, which he
described as "constructiveambiguity," it "wouldundermine US extended deterrence
and damage the health of our alliances becauseit would call into question the
assurance that the United States would come tothe defense of allies in extreme
circumstances." Thisuncertainty might prompt these countries to arm themselves
with nuclearweapons, he said.
Thehawkish Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) commissioned by President Donald Trump
in2018 lists a range of circumstances under which the US might consider
strikingfirst, such as significant strategic attacks on the US, allied or
partnercivilian infrastructure, forces, their command and control, as well as
warningand assessment capabilities with conventional weapons.
Thatclause represents a major shift from the previous US nuclear doctrine, and
hasdrawn strong criticism from Moscow, which accused Washington of lowering the
nuclear threshold andexacerbating the nuclear arms race. In addition to
threatening nuclearannihilation, the review sets the stage for upgrading and
expanding the alreadyvast US nuclear arsenal. The nuclear build-up envisions
developing new types oflow-yield warheads that could be placed on
submarine-launched ballisticmissiles and on sea-launched cruise missiles.
The"mini-nuke" produced by the Pantex plant in Texas has the relativelysmall
explosive power of around five kilotons of TNT, in an attempt to make theUS
deterrent more "flexible."According to some experts, it can be launched from
the B-21 Raider heavy bomber, which is beingdeveloped, making a preemptive
nuclear raid more of a probability.
Russiaand its weapons modernization program has been singled out in the review
as oneof the reasons for a major build-up of the US nuclear triad. But unlike
theAmerican one, the Russian military doctrine allows the use of nukes only
ifunder attack by weapons of mass destruction or when Russia's sovereignty is
atstake.
Whilereinforcing its own nuclear deterrent, the US plans to spend billions
ofdollars upgrading its 150 B61 nuclear bombs scattered across its four
Europeanallies: Germany, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands – as well as
Turkey.
Russiahas repeatedly warned Washington that the deployment of the new bombs
wouldviolate the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
