Recently, Russia made a high-profile announcement: It has deployed the "Sarmat" intercontinental ballistic missile, received its first Tu-160M strategic bomber, and installed the "Grand Marshal Suvorov" Type 955A strategic missile nuclear submarine.
The "Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile", "Tu-160M strategic bomber" and "Borey A-class strategic missile nuclear submarine" are Russia's land, air and sea triad strategic nuclear strike weapons. They are important forces to defend Russia's national security.
In other words, Russia announced the inclusion of three major weapons at this time, which obviously means to deter the United States and the NATO it formed. Even though the three major weapons are not used at ordinary times, once they are used, the killing effect is as devastating as the world.
However, these three types of nuclear strike equipment will not have much deterrent effect on the United States. After all, the United States also has a triad of nuclear strike forces, and its performance is no worse than Russia's. In this case, it probably won't work as it should.
After all, Russia has threatened the United States many times with nuclear weapons , but with little effect. Not only has the United States not restrained at all, but it has intensified its support for Ukraine. Today, there are only F-15, F-16 and other fighter jets, and the M1A2 main battle tank has not entered Ukraine.
It can be known from the actions of the United States that it does not take Russia's so-called nuclear threat into its eyes at all. Because the United States also knows very well that Russia has repeatedly said that it would use nuclear weapons, but in the end it was ignored. This kind of threat will be of little use if it is repeated too many times. It’s better to say it a thousand times than actually do it once.
Next, let’s take a look at how much of a threat the three nuclear strike equipment announced by Russia pose to the United States.
Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile
The intercontinental ballistic missile has an overall length of 35.5 meters, a missile diameter of 3 meters, and is propelled by a liquid fuel rocket engine. Its take-off weight is as high as 208.1 tons, and the weight of liquid fuel alone is as high as 178 tons, accounting for 85% of the total weight of the missile . The payload is nearly 10 tons and can carry 10 heavy-duty separately guided nuclear warheads with a yield of 750,000 tons of TNT. The maximum range is as high as 16,000 kilometers.
In fact, as far as the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile itself is concerned, it is not very powerful. It only transports several re-entry vehicles to a predetermined space and then releases them. The specific task of nuclear strike will be handed over to the re-entry vehicle and the nuclear warhead inside.
If the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile uses a traditional re-entry vehicle, its penetration capability is not so strong that it cannot be intercepted. After all, the trajectory of the traditional re-entry vehicle is still parabolic.
However, Russia plans to use the Pioneer hypersonic warhead as the re-entry vehicle for the Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. This means that Sarmat is only used as the carrier of Pioneer hypersonic missile . It only needs to be sent into outer space, and the rest is left to the Pioneer hypersonic missile.
The trajectory of the Pioneer hypersonic missile is not a traditional parabola, but a water-drifting trajectory. On the whole, it is unpredictable, which greatly improves the penetration effect.
Tu-160 strategic bomber
The empty weight of the Tu-160 strategic bomber is 110 tons, the maximum take-off weight is 275 tons, the maximum range is 16,000 kilometers, and the maximum built-in load is 45 tons.
When the Tu-160 strategic bomber carries 9 tons of ammunition, its range reaches 160 million kilometers while flying at high altitudes, and its combat radius reaches 7,300 kilometers. Even if there is an ultra-low-altitude penetration distance of 2,000 kilometers, the range can reach 130 million kilometers, and the combat radius will be reduced accordingly.
When the load of the Tu-160 strategic bomber is increased to 22 tons, even if it flies at high altitude throughout the whole journey, the range will drop to 120 million kilometers, and the combat radius will naturally decrease accordingly.
Then, when the Tu-160 strategic bomber flies with the maximum load, the range will be reduced to less than 10,000 kilometers, and the combat radius is estimated to be around 5,000 kilometers.
Russia’s existing nuclear cruise missiles are mainly the X-102, with a maximum range of up to 5,000 kilometers. Coupled with the 7,300-kilometer combat radius of the Tu-160M strategic bomber, it can also exert the deterrent effect of intercontinental ballistic missiles.
However, the Tu-160 strategic bomber is not invisible and is very easy to be discovered during flight, thus attracting interception by various enemy air defense weapons. This biggest weakness causes its overall deterrent effect to be insignificant.
Borei A-class strategic missile nuclear submarine
955A type strategic missile nuclear submarine has a length of 170 meters, a diameter of 13 meters, a surface displacement of 17,000 tons, an underwater displacement of 240 million tons, and a maximum diving depth of 450 meters. Due to the extensive use of automation technology, only 107 crew members are enough to take turns controlling the Borei-class strategic missile nuclear submarine.
The Borei A-class strategic missile nuclear submarine carries 16 Bulava submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles with a range of nearly 9,000 kilometers and the ability to carry multiple warheads.
According to the disclosed information, the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile has no plans to carry a Pioneer hypersonic warhead and is still a traditional re-entry vehicle. As a result, its penetration capability is not too strong, at least it cannot be compared with the Pioneer hypersonic warhead.
Taken together, the deterrent power of Russia's three major national-restoring weapons listed this time is mainly composed of the "Pioneer hypersonic warhead, X-102 stealth cruise missile, and Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile." Among the above three types of nuclear strike equipment, only the Pioneer hypersonic warhead has a relatively strong penetration capability and has the strongest deterrent effect on the United States. As for the X-102 stealth cruise missile and the Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile, there is a probability of being intercepted, especially the air-launched cruise missile like the X-102.
Although the Pioneer hypersonic warhead poses a relatively strong threat to the United States, the number in service is too small. In addition, the United States' nuclear strike capabilities are stronger than Russia's, especially its secondary nuclear counterattack capabilities. Coupled with the interception of the anti-missile system , the nuclear deterrence used by the United States against Russia is really unreasonable and cannot scare it at all. Therefore, Russia currently has no way to prevent NATO from supporting Ukraine.
It can be seen that the impact of the three major weapons deployed by Russia on the Russia-Ukraine war has little practical significance. Instead of always making a fuss about nuclear weapons, it is better to devote more energy to the development of modern main battle equipment such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), precision guided munitions, information combat systems, and reconnaissance satellites.
