© Russian Defense Ministry Press Office/TASS
TASS: Russia's hypersonic missiles may reach US command centers in 5 minutes, says expert
Hypersonic system like Tsircon practically breaks through any missile defense, a Russian admiral said
MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Russian military ships and submarines equipped with Tsircon hypersonic missiles will be capable of destroying command centers on the United States territory in five minutes, Retired Counter Admiral Vsevolov Khmyrov told reporters on Thursday.
Khmyrov said that after withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty, the US will control systems that they may decide to deploy in Europe "from command centers on the territory of the American continent." Russia's Tsircon missiles will not only create a counterweight to missiles deployed in Europe "but will also ensure the capability to strike key control systems - command centers," he added.
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WNU Editor: This is a first strike weapon. And the Russian admiralty wants 4 - 6 vessels with this capability off the east and west coasts of the U.S. ....
.... "The number of military ships and submarines with Tsircon missiles onboard on combat dury in West Atlantic and East Pacific may stand at two-three ships on each direction with about 40 missiled onboard," Khmyrov said.
For more details on this hypersonic missile go here .... Russia again successfully tests ship-based hypersonic missile — which will likely be ready for combat by 2022 (CNBC).
3 comments:
It had generally been assumed, as I understand it, that our response time to a Russian nuclear attack would be "under 30 minutes" and more specifically "15 to 20 minutes." If these missiles can reach our command centers in only five minutes, this means we have maybe 1 minute, perhaps 2 to detect the attack and launch a counter attack and after this we will not have the ability to respond.
Do we have the ability to launch within one minute from the time an order is given? Do we have the ability to detect the incoming missiles, evaluate what they are, and launch a response within one minute? After all this all the time we are going to have to detect the incoming missiles, evaluate them, and launch a counter attack.
Also, we should expect Russian cyber forces to attack our command and control centers prior to the launch. As has been reported recently, these are the best in the world. Actually, while the only way to "know" is to actually have the conflict, but I've strongly suspected this for a long, long time. I'm pleased to see members the media finally catching on.
It's looking like POTUS's initial instincts in trying to find some kind of accommodation with Russia were spot on. Hopefully there is still time.
In the meantime, the our military specifically those in charge of our nuclear forces need to figure out how to detect an attack and launch a counter attack in under a minute. If the missiles reach in five minutes, we'd only have about a minute, two at the very most, to evaluate the threat and launch a counter attack. How can we possibly respond that quickly?? We need to figure this out!! Additionally, the command and control facilities need to protected against cyber attacks that could render us essentially useless leaving us as sitting ducks.
Don't forget that all of these new weapons that Putin has been talking about since March 1, last year, were developed as a response to the 2002 US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty. THey seem themselves as responding to a US first strike potential aided by missile defenses.
Our problem is that we never think through the long term implications of such strategic decisions.
US "missile defense" was not designed to handle anything on the level that countries like Russia or even China have. To have used this type of system against them would be laughable IMHO. It would be like using a bit like using a leather shield to try and stop a barrage of bullets from an AK-47, M-16, or other modern military rifle. It's just not going to work and posed/poses no threat to Russia.
US "missile defense" was/is primarily designed to handle limited missile strikes from countries such as North Korea, Iran, or a terrorist entity. Since Russia does not face a threat of this type except possibly from a terrorist entity, they would IMHO have less need for such a system. Furthermore the primary targets for such groups would be the United States or perhaps Israel.
Perhaps more effort could have been made to engage the Russians early on to withdraw or modify support for Iran in its quest to destroy America as well to get them to help us to reign in the threats posed by North Korea. Then perhaps missile defense is unnecessary. Of course even the so called "missile defense" we have been developing is probably not going to be effective against even a limited strike. As such, perhaps the utility in such a system was/is questionable at best and should not have been pursued.
Perhaps other avenues would have been more fruitful. I would suggest 1.)more earnest diplomatic efforts with nations like Russia. At one time, diplomacy with them would have been considered "real politic" and those who pursued such approaches would have been referred to as "statesmen" and would have been lauded for their efforts. IMHO such approaches are common sense. Unfortunately today one suggests such common sense approaches to solve problems and they are attacked personally and their patriotism is even questioned. It seems POTUS tried this approach and it seems to me that his initial instincts were spot on. Perhaps it is not to late. 2.)While this is going on, upgrade our own first strike capabilities. If Russia knew they had only had five minutes before key targets are hit, they might think twice before launching a first strike as well.
Essentially to reiterate, if one has only five minutes, I would assume it is going to take 30 seconds to identify that something is incoming, 30 seconds to analyze, 30 seconds to formulate a response, and 30 seconds to launch the counterattack. IMHO this is being generous with the time we are actually going to have to be able to respond. We may have even less time. Also, we are likely to be contending with cyber attacks against our systems while this is going on.
If we had the same capability that Russia has, they might be hesitant to think in terms of a first strike. If Russia implements this, we need to be ready with our own comparable system. Maybe they already have this in place and are lying when they say they would only implement based upon US actions. After all I would not trust US (un)intelligence to be on top of it.
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