"Minuteman" or "Poplar": who is who? Opinion Alhurra
The events of recent months have led to a serious change in the international situation and may be a sign of the beginning of a new Cold War. Against this background, a special interest arises in the strategic nuclear forces of future potential adversaries. An interesting look at this issue on August 6 was published by the American Arabic-language publication Alhurra. An article on this topic was given the title “American Minuteman and Russian Topol: Who Has the Superiority in Nuclear Weapons?”
Alhurra recalls that on the eve of the publication of the publication, the United States withdrew from the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles. As a result of this step, according to experts, Russia and the United States could launch a new Cold War and an arms race.
After withdrawing from the treaty, the United States announced its plans to create new weapons. Russia, in turn, will intensify monitoring of American work in the field of medium and short-range missiles.
The INF Treaty prohibited the creation and use of missiles with a range of 500-5500 km. The United States was “forced” to withdraw from this agreement because of “violations by Moscow.” Now the US side is developing new ground-based missile systems. Cruise and ballistic missiles are created.
The publication indicates that since the last Cold War, the number of nuclear weapons in the world has declined sharply. As of 2019, all world arsenals contain 13890 war blocks. The peak of the development of this area is 1986, when the nuclear powers had 70,3 thousand nuclear warheads.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia now has the largest nuclear arsenal. She has 6500 strategic and tactical warheads. In second place is the United States with 6185 charges.
Third place in the list of nuclear powers is France with 300 warheads. 290 of such products provided fourth place to China. The five leaders closes the UK, with 215 charges. This is followed by Pakistan (150 units), India (140 units), as well as Israel (80) and DPRK (25).
In such calculations, Alhurra recalls, not only ICBMs and other missile systems were taken into account, but also free-falling bombs used aviation, - historically the first version of nuclear weapons. Further, the publication offers to carefully consider the nuclear potential of Russia and the United States.
Land forces of the strategic nuclear forces use the LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. This product was created by Boeing and is capable of carrying several nuclear warheads. The rocket has a starting weight of 36 t and develops speed up to M = 23. Flight range - 13 thousand km, the maximum height of the trajectory - 1100 km.
Nuclear-powered submarine carriers carry the UGM-133A Trident II ICBM created by Lockheed Martin. The three-stage rocket has a length of 13 m and a mass of 59 tons. The cost of the product is 30 million dollars. Experts believe that Trident-2 is the most effective weapons American SNF.
B-52 strategic bombers can use AGM-86B cruise missiles. A missile 6 m long weighs 1430 kg and costs about 1 million dollars. Such missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
The main weapon of strategic aviation in the USA Alhurra calls tactical free-falling bomb B61. This weapon has a length of approx. 4 m and weight of the order of 320 kg. In total, about 3 thousand of similar products were released.
First of all, the Topol-M ICBM is mentioned. This product with a length of 22 m and a mass of 47 t can be used with silo launchers or on mobile soil complexes. Flight range - 11 thousand km, maximum speed on the trajectory M = 22. The missile is equipped with nuclear warheads.
P-36 family missiles, manufactured in the eighties, remain in service. Such ICBMs with nuclear warheads are used only with launchers. The length of the 32 rocket is m, the starting weight is 209 tons.
Among the carriers of nuclear weapons, Alhurra also indicates the 9K720 Iskander operational-tactical complex, and calls it the “medium-range system”. This complex is called the reason that the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty. At the same time, the publication immediately writes about the firing range to 500 km.
The publication also did not forget about the legendary Tsar Bomb. It is alleged that two products were created. One was tested at the test site, and the second is still in storage. Such ammunition has a length of 8 m and weighs 27 t.
Alhurra tries to find the answer to an obvious question and in this case resorts to the opinion of an expert. The authors cite statements by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis in the recent past, published by Business Insider.
J. Lewis believes that the number of nuclear weapons in the country's arsenal is not a key criterion for their power and effectiveness. He also argued that Russian claims of nuclear superiority “are most likely untrue.”
In one of his interviews, J. Lewis spoke about the opinions of the officers of the United Strategic Command responsible for the use of strategic nuclear forces. For several decades in a row, they have been saying that if it was necessary to choose between Russian and American weapons, they would choose domestic.
American missiles and warheads, according to Dr. Lewis, can not "destroy entire continents." At the same time, they are better suited for solving strategic tasks determined by the US command. An expert points out that American missiles "look like Ferrari cars." They are beautiful and can perform their tasks for a long time.
According to J. Lewis, Russian industry is characterized by the development of systems that need regular modernization. However, the result of this is to obtain results comparable to the American ones. In addition, the Russian command prefers mobile soil complexes “on cheap trucks”, while the United States mainly uses silo launchers.
J. Lewis sees another difference in the strategies of the two countries in the specifics of the use of weapons and the wishes of the military. The United States loves accuracy, and the ideal weapon for them is a small charge that can fly into a window and blow up a building. The Russian military prefers to launch a dozen warheads in both the building and the city. As an argument in favor of this thesis, Dr. Lewis mentions the particularities of the work of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria.
An Alhurra article is quite interesting in that it leaves a ton of questions. It contains factual errors, mixed ratings, and strange quotes. The material ends with a logical and expected conclusion - for an American publication, even if it is published in a different language.
There is no particular point in a detailed analysis of all Alhurra errors. You can immediately proceed to the search for the reasons for the appearance of such controversial publications. Without much work, several prerequisites can be found at once.
The most obvious reason is immediately apparent. This is the publication’s desire to “work out” a relevant topic. In early August, the United States officially withdrew from the INF Treaty, which resulted in a mass of thematic publications in the media. Alhurra decided to keep up and also considered a pressing issue with far-reaching conclusions.
Apparently, the publication does not pay due attention to the study of military affairs, because of which the article contains a lot of gross errors of various kinds. Incorrect characteristics of weapons are given, the purpose of the products is incorrectly indicated, and experimental samples of the past are mentioned as actual and real military weapons.
Finally, an expert opinion is given that clearly prefers one of the compared parties. His findings are controversial, but may be pleasing to the American public with patriotic moods. All this is more like an attempt to obtain the desired results that correspond to the current agenda.
In general, we are talking about an attempt by a non-core publication to consider military-technical and military-political issues with obtaining politically correct conclusions. With this approach to business, objectivity suffers, and unpleasant questions arise. However, articles of this kind continue to appear in foreign media and, importantly, continue to influence public opinion.
Article "" مينيتمان "الأميركي أم" توبول "الروسي .. لمن التفوق النووي؟".
General background
Alhurra recalls that on the eve of the publication of the publication, the United States withdrew from the treaty on intermediate and shorter-range missiles. As a result of this step, according to experts, Russia and the United States could launch a new Cold War and an arms race.
After withdrawing from the treaty, the United States announced its plans to create new weapons. Russia, in turn, will intensify monitoring of American work in the field of medium and short-range missiles.
The INF Treaty prohibited the creation and use of missiles with a range of 500-5500 km. The United States was “forced” to withdraw from this agreement because of “violations by Moscow.” Now the US side is developing new ground-based missile systems. Cruise and ballistic missiles are created.
Global nuclear situation
The publication indicates that since the last Cold War, the number of nuclear weapons in the world has declined sharply. As of 2019, all world arsenals contain 13890 war blocks. The peak of the development of this area is 1986, when the nuclear powers had 70,3 thousand nuclear warheads.
According to the Federation of American Scientists, Russia now has the largest nuclear arsenal. She has 6500 strategic and tactical warheads. In second place is the United States with 6185 charges.
Third place in the list of nuclear powers is France with 300 warheads. 290 of such products provided fourth place to China. The five leaders closes the UK, with 215 charges. This is followed by Pakistan (150 units), India (140 units), as well as Israel (80) and DPRK (25).
In such calculations, Alhurra recalls, not only ICBMs and other missile systems were taken into account, but also free-falling bombs used aviation, - historically the first version of nuclear weapons. Further, the publication offers to carefully consider the nuclear potential of Russia and the United States.
US weapons
Land forces of the strategic nuclear forces use the LGM-30G Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile. This product was created by Boeing and is capable of carrying several nuclear warheads. The rocket has a starting weight of 36 t and develops speed up to M = 23. Flight range - 13 thousand km, the maximum height of the trajectory - 1100 km.
Nuclear-powered submarine carriers carry the UGM-133A Trident II ICBM created by Lockheed Martin. The three-stage rocket has a length of 13 m and a mass of 59 tons. The cost of the product is 30 million dollars. Experts believe that Trident-2 is the most effective weapons American SNF.
B-52 strategic bombers can use AGM-86B cruise missiles. A missile 6 m long weighs 1430 kg and costs about 1 million dollars. Such missiles can be equipped with nuclear warheads.
The main weapon of strategic aviation in the USA Alhurra calls tactical free-falling bomb B61. This weapon has a length of approx. 4 m and weight of the order of 320 kg. In total, about 3 thousand of similar products were released.
Russian weapons
First of all, the Topol-M ICBM is mentioned. This product with a length of 22 m and a mass of 47 t can be used with silo launchers or on mobile soil complexes. Flight range - 11 thousand km, maximum speed on the trajectory M = 22. The missile is equipped with nuclear warheads.
P-36 family missiles, manufactured in the eighties, remain in service. Such ICBMs with nuclear warheads are used only with launchers. The length of the 32 rocket is m, the starting weight is 209 tons.
Among the carriers of nuclear weapons, Alhurra also indicates the 9K720 Iskander operational-tactical complex, and calls it the “medium-range system”. This complex is called the reason that the United States withdrew from the INF Treaty. At the same time, the publication immediately writes about the firing range to 500 km.
The publication also did not forget about the legendary Tsar Bomb. It is alleged that two products were created. One was tested at the test site, and the second is still in storage. Such ammunition has a length of 8 m and weighs 27 t.
Which is better?
Alhurra tries to find the answer to an obvious question and in this case resorts to the opinion of an expert. The authors cite statements by Dr. Jeffrey Lewis in the recent past, published by Business Insider.
J. Lewis believes that the number of nuclear weapons in the country's arsenal is not a key criterion for their power and effectiveness. He also argued that Russian claims of nuclear superiority “are most likely untrue.”
In one of his interviews, J. Lewis spoke about the opinions of the officers of the United Strategic Command responsible for the use of strategic nuclear forces. For several decades in a row, they have been saying that if it was necessary to choose between Russian and American weapons, they would choose domestic.
American missiles and warheads, according to Dr. Lewis, can not "destroy entire continents." At the same time, they are better suited for solving strategic tasks determined by the US command. An expert points out that American missiles "look like Ferrari cars." They are beautiful and can perform their tasks for a long time.
According to J. Lewis, Russian industry is characterized by the development of systems that need regular modernization. However, the result of this is to obtain results comparable to the American ones. In addition, the Russian command prefers mobile soil complexes “on cheap trucks”, while the United States mainly uses silo launchers.
J. Lewis sees another difference in the strategies of the two countries in the specifics of the use of weapons and the wishes of the military. The United States loves accuracy, and the ideal weapon for them is a small charge that can fly into a window and blow up a building. The Russian military prefers to launch a dozen warheads in both the building and the city. As an argument in favor of this thesis, Dr. Lewis mentions the particularities of the work of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Syria.
Ambiguous opinion
An Alhurra article is quite interesting in that it leaves a ton of questions. It contains factual errors, mixed ratings, and strange quotes. The material ends with a logical and expected conclusion - for an American publication, even if it is published in a different language.
There is no particular point in a detailed analysis of all Alhurra errors. You can immediately proceed to the search for the reasons for the appearance of such controversial publications. Without much work, several prerequisites can be found at once.
The most obvious reason is immediately apparent. This is the publication’s desire to “work out” a relevant topic. In early August, the United States officially withdrew from the INF Treaty, which resulted in a mass of thematic publications in the media. Alhurra decided to keep up and also considered a pressing issue with far-reaching conclusions.
Apparently, the publication does not pay due attention to the study of military affairs, because of which the article contains a lot of gross errors of various kinds. Incorrect characteristics of weapons are given, the purpose of the products is incorrectly indicated, and experimental samples of the past are mentioned as actual and real military weapons.
Finally, an expert opinion is given that clearly prefers one of the compared parties. His findings are controversial, but may be pleasing to the American public with patriotic moods. All this is more like an attempt to obtain the desired results that correspond to the current agenda.
In general, we are talking about an attempt by a non-core publication to consider military-technical and military-political issues with obtaining politically correct conclusions. With this approach to business, objectivity suffers, and unpleasant questions arise. However, articles of this kind continue to appear in foreign media and, importantly, continue to influence public opinion.
Article "" مينيتمان "الأميركي أم" توبول "الروسي .. لمن التفوق النووي؟".
- Ryabov Kirill
- Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation / mil.ru, USAF, US Navy
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