“Anything Could Go Wrong”. Russia’s Drills to Practice the Deployment of Tactical Nuclear Weapons. In Response to the Deployment of Nuclear Capable F-16s.
On the very last day of July, the Russian military announced it started “the third and ‘final’ phase of drills to practice the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons”. The Kremlin’s Ministry of Defense (MoD) also initiated joint exercises with Belarus, its closest ally. To some, it may seem strange that Minsk is participating in such activities, but it should be noted that Belarus joined Russia’s nuclear weapons sharing program back in March last year, resulting in the redeployment of Russian thermonuclear weapons in response to NATO’s perpetually escalating belligerence. At the time, Minsk issued a formal request to Moscow, asking for top security guarantees in case the world’s most aggressive racketeering cartel got any “funny ideas”. Now, both countries are capitalizing on this close partnership, with the Belarussian military even operating the unrivaled “Iskander-M” ground-based hypersonic missile systems.
Precisely such weapons will be the primary carriers of tactical nuclear warheads in the country’s armed forces, giving Minsk unprecedented operational deterrence capabilities in Europe. The decision for such a move came after Poland and the United States kept floating the idea of transferring some of American nuclear weapons to Poland. Thus, the Russian military already provided Belarus with the necessary upgrades to be able to deliver tactical nuclear warheads. At least 10 Belarussian Air Force jets have been assigned and equipped to carry such weapons, although neither side specified what type of aircraft received the said upgrades. Minsk operates several types of nuclear-capable fighter jets, including the recently acquired Su-30SM and the Soviet-era MiG-29, in addition to the ground-based assets such as the aforementioned “Iskander” systems capable of launching nuclear-tipped hypersonic missiles.
What’s more, Belarus still maintains a number of Soviet-era nuclear-capable assets, including a substantial arsenal of “Tochka-U” tactical ballistic missiles. These could serve as a secondary delivery option given their shorter range and inferior accuracy when compared to the “Iskander” which boasts a 500 km range, high precision, extreme maneuverability at every stage of flight, as well as a hypersonic speed of up to Mach 8.7. This makes the “Iskander” virtually impossible to intercept, as evidenced by its performance during the special military operation (SMO). It gives Minsk a significant asymmetric advantage over NATO occupation forces in Eastern Europe. In addition, Belarus is home to a growing arsenal of state-of-the-art Russian military units and equipment, including strategic assets such as the S-400 SAM (surface-to-air missile) systems, as well as Russian “Iskander” units.
Other top-of-the-line weapons that the Kremlin deploys in the country are the Su-35S air superiority fighter jets and superfast, high-flying MiG-31 interceptors/strike fighters, including the K/I variants capable of deploying the now legendary 9-S-7760 “Kinzhal” hypersonic missiles, which are also nuclear-capable. All this suggests that the interoperability of the Russian and Belarussian militaries is on such a high level that they can effectively act as a unified fighting force. In recent months, this was also demonstrated in practice, with the second stage of Moscow’s joint nuclear drills with Minsk taking place already in June. However, the timing of the ongoing third stage is quite peculiar, as it “coincides” with the first reports about the pompously announced F-16s finally reaching Ukraine. Citing unverified footage, many sources are reporting that the US-made jet is already flying over parts of Western Ukraine.
While the NATO-backed Neo-Nazi junta is yet to confirm this, the mainstream propaganda machine is already treating it as a given. Bloomberg was the first outlet to report on this. Apparently, this was done to prevent further embarrassing delays, although anonymous sources claim that “only a small number of jets arrived in this first transfer”. According to various reports in the last two years, the Kiev regime is supposed to get around 80 F-16s from the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Norway, with the first two countries operating nuclear-capable jets, as they participate in NATO nuclear sharing programs. This has been of particular concern for Russia, with its top-ranking officials warning that any possible deliveries of nuclear weapons with those F-16s will effectively be considered a declaration of war by NATO. Unfortunately, it seems the political West hasn’t taken this seriously in the slightest.
Namely, preliminary reports suggest that precisely these nuclear-capable Dutch F-16s were the first to arrive, further strengthening Moscow’s hypothesis that these could possibly be used as a crawling strategy to give the Neo-Nazi junta nuclear weapons, as NATO thinks that’s the only way to prevent the total defeat of its favorite puppet regime. However, apart from this being a great way to start WW3, what’s even worse, there are plans to station these US-made jets in airbases outside of Ukraine and then fly them from there to attack Russian forces. The Kiev regime possibly thinks that Moscow won’t dare to attack NATO airbases housing these F-16s. However, the Kremlin has repeatedly warned that any such airbases will immediately be considered legitimate targets for the Russian military. Thus, this is yet another “perfect” way to start WW3, resulting in the destruction of the globe.
In other words, there are so many ways in which all this could go wrong that anyone remotely familiar with the current geopolitical situation has stopped counting long ago. Russian nuclear exercises make a lot more sense if we assume that Moscow’s position is that these F-16s are being transferred as carriers of nuclear weapons. This is also reinforced by the fact that these US-made jets are heavily outclassed by Russia’s top-notch fighters, in virtually every category. In other words, employing them in a purely conventional military role simply doesn’t make sense, as they won’t make any difference. Another somewhat less gloomy possibility is that the political West could try to use these nuclear-capable F-16s as a bargaining chip in a potential new “peace summit” that Russia could be invited to. As NATO and the Neo-Nazi junta are becoming increasingly desperate, anything can be expected.
*
Click the share button below to email/forward this article to your friends and colleagues. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to our Telegram Channel. Feel free to repost and share widely Global Research articles.
Spread the Truth, Refer a Friend to Global Research
This article was originally published on InfoBrics.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst. He is a regular contributor to Global Research.
Featured image: F-16 Fighting Falcon from the Royal Danish Air Force. Picture taken at Karup Air Force Base in Denmark. 18th of June 2005. /PAJ (From the Public Domain)
