New submarines for Russia's nuclear force

 The Russian Strategic Nuclear Force is to get two new missile submarines this year. They are the “Yury Dolgoruky” and the “Alexander  Nevsky”.

By 2018, the SNF will receive 8 submarines, four for the North Fleet and four for the  Pacific Fleet. Thus, the Russian potential nuclear deterrent force, while already being very powerful, will be boosted even further. All the country’s potential enemies know full well that if an aggression is launched on Russia, the response will be quite devastating. The nuclear response may not be by sea, but by land, says Victor Litovkin, senior editor of  the  “Independent Military Review” journal.

“The Russian nuclear deterrent is fully operational and neither the U.S. nor NATO dares attack the country. The beefing up of  the Russian naval fleets will further strengthen its nuclear deterrent potential, the more so, that for the first time the new “Borei” class submarines are to carry 16  “Bulava” nuclear missiles with 6-10 warheads each. The remaining subs, including the  “Vladimir Monomakh” will be equipped with 20 such  missiles each. It should be said though that all the above mentioned missiles and warheads should conform to the signed START-3  Treaty”, Victor Litovkin said.

“START-3 enjoins Russia and the  U.S. to keep  700 means of delivery plus 100 in store, and 1,550 nuclear warheads each. By 2020, Russia will have in its northern regions, up  to 11 cruisers, the biggest anti-submarine concentration in history. The American anti-missile defense will not be in a position  to pose a threat  to the Russian Armada, no matter where it is deployed.”

The Arctic Sea is Russia’s most advantageous area, because it is very difficult to detect the country’s missile cruisers under the thick ice. The Russian designers of the missile systems all say that there is no anti-missile device that could prevent Russia’s strategic missiles and warheads, which fly at hyper-sonic speed, to hit their intended targets.

The increase in the number of submarines equipped with inter- continental ballistic  missiles  is an alarming factor to potential enemies- the  U.S., England, and France,  says Victor Baranets,  a commentator  at the “Komsomolskaya Pravda”.

“The anti-missile system is meant to bring down land based rockets. Russia faces a problem here because of the proposed American system in Europe”, he said.

New missiles are  replacing old ones. The new rockets fly at higher altitudes, are faster and can avoid flying objects. The Russian government has allocated  20 trillion rubles, about 700 billion dollars for that  purpose up to 2020, a hefty  chunk of which will be  spent to develop the nuclear missile force.