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Subject: Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?
Military Strength    4/21/2004 3:56:09 PM
Moscow's Nezavisimaya Gazeta reports that Russia's strategic bombers and nuclear submarines "will deliver hypothetical nuclear strikes on the U.S. and Britain, while locating and destroying aircraft-carrier groups of the U.S. Navy." The massive air, sea and land maneuvers are being conducted in the wake of America's stunning victory over Iraq, a long time client state of Russia. The paper said the exercises are taking place because, "Russian military leaders have learned a lesson from the Iraq war, and intend to show the U.S. and its allies their determination to repel any potential threat coming from the West." The Russian military, in plans drawn up at the request of President Vladmir Putin, argues that the only way Russia can deal with an escalating regional conflict with the U.S., would be to employ nuclear weapons. Though Russia's military has been considerably downzied since the end of the Cold War, and its conventional forces hold little weight against a modern, equipped army, Russia has continued to invest heavily in strategic and tactical nuclear weapons. Sometime during the 90s, Russia attained nuclear superiority over the U.S. While Russia's large, strategic nuclear weapons have remained in parity with the U.S., Russia's tactical nuclear arsenal has been estimated to include between 20,000 to 40,000 weapons. At the same time Russia has continued its nuclear buildup, the U.S. has virtually destroyed its arsenal of tactical nuclear warheads. Under orders from the Bush administration, the U.S. has also been moving to further reduce the U.S. strategic arsenal. Currently, the nation's most modern fleet of ICBM, the MX missiles, are being destroyed. The Russian military exercises show a desire by the Russian military to deal with the huge technological lead U.S. conventional forces have, demonstrated by Operation Iraqi Freedom. According to Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the Russian exercises "will be linked with destroying the U.S. satellite group in order to neutralize the NAVSTAR global navigation system, the Keyhole optoelectronic intelligence satellites, and the Lacross radio-locating intelligence satellites." The paper said these maneuvers, "Under actual conditions of a war this would 'blind' the Pentagon and does not let the U.S. use high-precision weapons against Russian military groups." So far, the exercises are to include Four Tu-160 and nine Tu-95MS strategic bombers, 12 Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, and four Il-78 flying tankers will be involved in the maneuvers on May 17-18. The maneuvers are of a "global scale," the paper said. Major-General Igor Khvorov, commander of the 37th air army of the High Commander-in-Chief, said that the official objective of the exercise is to polish cooperation between the long-range aviation, the Navy, and other branches of the army in the western, eastern, northern, and southern regions of the Russian Federation, and over the world's oceans. This emphasizes a global scale of the impending maneuvers. Submarines of the Northern and Pacific fleets will launch ballistic missiles. Nuclear strategic and multi-purpose submarines, surface warships of different types, coastal missile and anti-aircraft units, and the missile-carrying, pursuit, and anti-submarine aviation will be involved in the exercise. The paper also noted that Russian warships sent to the Arabian Sea to take part in an exercise with the Indian Navy will support strategic units. They will find and destroy U.S. Los Angeles class submarines and deliver missile strikes at enemy warships. http://www.newsmax.com/archives
 
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elcid    The hypersonic reentry vehicle   5/29/2004 9:40:27 PM
This also was covered by FYEO - at least two articles. The idea is not that great. Everything you do costs you weight - and you have only so much payload on any given missile. If you use weight for decoys, or fuel on maneuvering reentry vehicles (MARV), you cannot use that weight for more warheads. EVERY WARHEAD YOU DO NOT CARRY is a victory for the defense. Defense wins every time you reduce the number of targets attacked - or attackable. The ONLY contest is over the target engaged - and if the number that can be engaged is reduced - all the rest were "saved" by the defense. Thats how we count. MARV works OK - but there is a price - just as for decoys. It reduces the total number of targets engagable. Let em do it I say - we want fewer targets.
 
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Canuckmeister    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   11/17/2004 10:00:19 AM
Duh! The whole premise of the Cold War was MAD, which was an acronymn for "Mutually Assured Destruction". What does this mean? Get a dictionary if you're not sure; it means that Russia (then the USSR) has the nuclear arsenal to destroy the sovereignty and existence of the United States, and also the United States has the ability to do the same to Russia. Britain does not even factor-in. This is not a "conventional force" discussion: it's strategic. Simple fact is that either of Russia or the United States has more than enough nuclear capability to end life on the planet earth by destroying the atmosphere and poisoning the ecosystem with fatal doses of radiation.
 
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kjetski    RE:Maybe not.   11/19/2004 4:07:23 PM
Russia attempted a nuclear exercise. It was trumpted big time, so you know they really expected it to work. The President was on board an SSBN to witness launches. None succeeded. ICBM launch ashore also failed. And these were the units that got the money. Other units have not had proper maintenance. Maybe Russia cannot shoot? Or not much. In the bad old days, when things were "well taken care of" about a third of Russian strategic missiles would not fire. So it really might be none today. [We are not that much better. The Polaris A-1 went to sea without warheads - the triggers didn't work and so we just bluffed. And NO MINUTEMAN has EVER launched from an operational silo. We tried too - three times. All failed. USAF found it all too embarassing - they just said "we fixed it" and stopped trying. Ask an engineer about what it means to have a complex system that never has worked. I am an engineer: it means the system does not work. For Lyonel? Minutemen Missles are constantly tested. The Air Force will test fire them once in awhile just to make sure. Ours will work. I am not so sure about the commie missles however.
 
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Cowboy1    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   12/26/2004 7:50:14 PM
Can the US turn Russia into a glass bottomed, self lighted parking lot??? The real question is; Is Russia suicidal? Why would they want to even consider such an option? Do Russians actually think they could "win" a nuclear war with the US? If so then they are frigging delusional. Add up every nuclear weapon that would land on Russia, Minute man3 missiles, Trident 2 warheads, and ALCM's by the thousands. If, and it is a pretty big IF, the Russians could hit the US harder, and like I said I doubt it, who would want to live in a radioactive and destroyed world filled with dead bodies? The next war RUssians would fight would be with sticks and stones.
 
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Galderio    RE:Maybe not.   12/27/2004 8:03:12 AM
One of these days I saw a SS-25 launch on tv and it seems some commie missles really work.
 
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Tomonaga    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   3/27/2005 10:43:46 PM
"The west isn't threatening Russia, they just have yet to work out who their new enemies are." It's Dr. Strangelove.
 
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iocane    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   10/12/2005 3:10:17 PM
Amazing that russia missle technology is labeled as so useless. When the last shuttle blew up, it was the russians who got the American astronauts to the international space station for awhile. Same technology in missles as in the rockets to put someone in orbit.
 
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Basilisk Station    mrgenie RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   10/12/2005 3:52:20 PM
Try putting in a few more returns to make more paragraphs. Your post is essentially unreadable. If you want people to read what you post, you have to make it readable.
 
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nominoe    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   10/14/2005 8:47:09 AM
"mazing that russia missle technology is labeled as so useless. When the last shuttle blew up, it was the russians who got the American astronauts to the international space station for awhile. Same technology in missles as in the rockets to put someone in orbit" agreed. and even if there is a chance that some of their missiles don't work, would anybody take that risk? i think however that nobody, no country, will ever launch a massive nuclear attack against another nuclear country. there would be only losers. the fact is that nuclear bomb is perhaps the best peaceful invention ever. i understand that every country wish to have it. the only danger is a terrorist nuke, because we would not know where to strike, so i don't imagine a nuclear response. let's see the world as it is : since WWII, nuclear powers have fought undirectly. i don't imagine USA vs Russia total war. i don't imagine an india/pakistan total war. if on day iran gets the bomb, i don't imagine an iran/israel total war. i feel secured because i live in a nuclear country and i know that our main land will never be invaded now. of course, i can still die with a bomb in a street.
 
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Jerry W. Loper    RE:Can Russia wipe the US and Britain of the map?   10/14/2005 9:38:47 AM
For the past 40 years it's been pretty much common knowledge that Russia could do that. Of course, then it should expect the USA and Britain to return the favor.
 
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