START-3 provides for a reduction for each side of deployed nuclear warheads to 1550
Photo: Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
This “information bomb”, which has become the main military sensation of recent days, was expressed in Vladimir Putin’s Speech. Russia stops its participation in the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3). Why was such a decision made? And what can it lead to?
Let’s find out.
1. WHO signed the START Treaty and when?
The first START-1 Treaty was signed by Mikhail Gorbachev and George W. Bush in July 1991, three weeks before the GKChP coup.
Now, between Russia and the United States, the third version of the Treaty, START-3, is already in force. It was signed in 2010 by Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama. The contract was designed for 10 years with the possibility of extension for another 5 years.
And it really extended, until February 2026.
2. How many nuclear warheads and missiles should each side have? And how much really?
START-3 provides for a reduction for each side of deployed nuclear warheads to 1,550.
And ICBMs, including those from submarines and heavy bombers – up to 700 units (it is clear that each missile can have several warheads, which separate when approaching and hit many targets at once).
According to the American inspection, Russia has 527 missiles. And they have 1,458 deployed warheads.
The United States, according to Russian inspectors, had 598 missiles. And 1,498 warheads deployed.
As we can see, both countries have reduced their nuclear missile forces even below the Treaty level. But the US had (and still has) a slight advantage.
3. What do Britain and France have to do with this?
Putin mentioned in his Speech that the Treaty should take into account nuclear weapons not only of the United States, but also of other NATO countries. Namely, France and Great Britain.
Because?
Because in the event of a conflict with Russia, London and Paris will discover their missiles at the first snap of Washington’s fingers.
According to the Stockholm Peace Institute, France today has 101 missiles and 290 warheads. Britain has 76 missiles and 225 warheads.
If we add up the nuclear potentials of the United States, France and Great Britain, then, as we see, they are already far superior to the Russian one.
Moreover, Britain and France not only have nuclear weapons, but they are also aimed at Russia.
All this seriously violates the principle of equal security, written in the same START-3 Treaty. But this question, posed by Moscow, has been brushed aside by the Americans time and time again.
4. What are our claims against the US under this Treaty?
From the very beginning of START-3, the Americans tried to “chemize”. For example, they did not allow our inspectors to fully test nuclear missiles on nuclear submarines. A dock and partial recognition is enough. Then the Russians were denied inspection of those declared nuclear facilities (which was contrary to the provisions of the Treaty).
In the end, these harassments got tired of the specialists of the Russian Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. An interesting detail: after the START-3 extension, the United States never let us in with a nuclear inspection. There was information that the state of its silo-based nuclear forces was deplorable. I think this is the reason why they didn’t let us in. Apparently, they did not want us to find out that not everything is as rosy for them as they claim.
On the other hand, the United States continued to quietly increase the number of missiles and warheads. As of the end of 2020, they had 675 aircraft carriers and 1,457 warheads. To all the claims of the Russian side on this matter, they only shrugged their shoulders. Trapped in another
No matter how hard our experts fought, they could not convince the Americans that it was dishonest to count a heavy bomber for a nuclear charge in the Treaty. Indeed, in fact, one side can carry up to 24 missiles or bombs. The US has more heavy bombers than Russia and so the actual load ratio was 2,100 for Russia and around 2,400 for the US.
But that is not all!
By February 5, 2018 (historic date under the Treaty), Russia had fully complied with its obligations to reduce its nuclear forces. The Americans went to tricks. 56 launchers of the Trident-II submarines and 41 B-52H bombers were unilaterally excluded from the ranking. Because? The United States said it converted them.
In addition, they called several mines “training” and also did not include them in the compensation. Result: The United States exceeded the number of nuclear launchers allowed by the Treaty by 101 units.
And now even more. After 2018, Moscow repeatedly raised the question of extending START-3, but the White House tried to “reform” it in its favor: it demanded that Russia include all its latest hypersonic missiles in the Treaty. This would deprive Russia of the opportunity to defend itself against the nuclear advantage of the United States, along with France and Great Britain.
Another point is also important here: the US and NATO are now openly acting against us in Ukraine. They say loudly that their goal is the defeat of Russia. And at the same time, they want to control our nuclear facilities. simpletons found!
5. What kind of nuclear bomb does the United States want to test? (what Putin said)
In his Speech, Putin stated: “Some figures in Washington, we know for sure, are already thinking about natural tests of their nuclear weapons, as the United States is developing new types of nuclear weapons. There is such information.”
In fact, in recent years, the United States has been actively developing low-yield nuclear charges. They want to adapt them to hypersonic systems (which the Americans are also urgently doing, trying to catch up with Russia in this). The main task is for such a missile to reach the territory of Russia as quickly as possible, bypassing our missile defense system.
They already have a design for a 2-stage missile that accelerates the warhead so that it reaches the target at a speed of 5-6 times faster than sound, destroying it with a direct hit. They are currently working on this project. But theory is one thing and practice is another. It is important for the Americans to understand what the real effect of the explosion of such a warhead will be, which in flight will be “scalded” by a frenzied temperature – up to 3 thousand degrees.
The United States is also creating a superweapon against Russia’s nuclear arsenal. According to his idea, it will be able to reach most of our nuclear potential even before Moscow decides to fight back.
That is, we see American attempts to develop a nuclear war scheme that would allow them to be the first to launch massive attacks against Russia without fear of retaliation.
6. What can we experience in return?
In this situation, Putin said in the Speech: “The Defense Ministry and Rosatom must ensure readiness to test Russian nuclear weapons. We will not be the first to do this, but if the United States conducts a test, we will.” There may well be hints of entirely new, precision-guided nuclear weapons of various capabilities.
7. What can all this lead to? What are the predictions?
Now that the United States claims its goal is to “inflict a strategic defeat on Russia,” and other NATO nuclear-armed countries have joined these threats, our continued START-3 compliance with the admission of US inspectors to our facilities it does not make any sense.
Under these conditions, Russia simply untied its hands.
And here the question arises: is there a danger that the world is moving towards a new round of the nuclear race? Experts say: it is not Russia that sets these impulses for the transition to a new state of the world order today, it is not we that are destroying nuclear parity. America is doing it.
8. And what kind of “thing” did we already put into service a week ago?
Putin also mentioned this in his Speech. It can be assumed that this is our latest fifth-generation silo-based strategic missile system “Sarmat”.
The “orbital bombardment” technology integrated into this rocket makes it possible to attack enemy territory along a suborbital trajectory through the South Pole of the Earth, bypassing the deployed US THAAD anti-missile batteries. The Avangard (Yu-71) guided warheads used in this product have no equal in the world.
