The Briefing Room
General Category => World News => Topic started by: SPQR on February 03, 2014, 04:21:52 am
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Russia does not intend to disclose information about the storage places of its tactical nuclear weapons or about their amount, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry department for security and disarmament Mikhail Ulyanov has said.
"Yes, we are invited to adopt some confidence-building measures by disclosing the storage places of the armaments and their quantity. But whom will it make life easier for, if we disclose such information? Only for terrorists. Should we be creating problems there where they are absent so far?" he wondered in an interview with Interfax.
Commenting on the calls of the United States and NATO to reduce Russian tactical nuclear armaments Ulyanov said: "The subject of Russian tactical nuclear armament is far-fetched and fanned quite artificially."
"In the past 20 year Russia reduced its tactical nuclear armaments by 75%. All these armaments are deployed solely in Russian territory. They are stored at centralized storage facilities, i.e. are not deployed and pose no threat to anyone," he said.
Meanwhile, "the situation is absolutely different with NATO and Americans," he said."Approximately 200 tactical nuclear warheads are located in six countries of Europe and they are deployed. Which means they pose a potential threat to us," Ulyanov said.
"Moreover, NATO has such a notion as nuclear sharing which means that pilots from non-nuclear countries are trained to pilot nuclear-carrying aircraft," he went on to say. "From the viewpoint of nuclear nonproliferation this is a violation of the letter and sprit of the NPT. Many countries share this viewpoint," Ulyanov said.
"We are not refusing to conduct a dialogue but we don't see a subject of even a preliminary conversation until all these weapons are withdrawn beyond Europe and before the infrastructure that permits their rapid return to the European continent is liquidated," the diplomat said.
"The practice of the said exercises should also be stopped," he said
http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2014_02_02/Russia-wont-diclose-info-tactical-nuclear-weapons-quantities-or-location-Foreign-Ministry-8907/
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There is a problem with the minister's statement. We disclose where and how much nuclear weapons we have overseas.
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(http://i62.tinypic.com/2q8ofg1.jpg)
These are all the bases that have nuclear weapons in Europe
(http://i62.tinypic.com/2lsba6o.png)
This is how much in each base
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(http://i62.tinypic.com/2q8ofg1.jpg)
These are all the bases that have nuclear weapons in Europe
(http://i62.tinypic.com/2lsba6o.png)
This is how much in each base
Of the three nuclear powers in NATO (France, the United Kingdom and the United States), only the United States has provided weapons for nuclear sharing. As of November 2009, Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey are still hosting U.S. nuclear weapons as part of NATO's nuclear sharing policy.[ Canada hosted weapons until 1984,and Greece until 2001. The United Kingdom also received U.S. tactical nuclear weapons such as nuclear artillery and Lance missiles until 1992, despite the UK being a nuclear weapons state in its own right; these were mainly deployed in Germany.
In peace time, the nuclear weapons stored in non-nuclear countries are guarded by U.S. airmen though previously some artillery and missile systems were guarded by US Army soldiers; the codes required for detonating them are under American control. In case of war, the weapons are to be mounted on the participating countries' warplanes. The weapons are under custody and control of USAF Munitions Support Squadrons co-located on NATO main operating bases who work together with the host nation forces.A U.S. nuclear weapon storage system at Volkel Air Base to store weapons for delivery by Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16sAs of 2005, 180 tactical B61 nuclear bombs of the 480 U.S. nuclear weapons believed to be deployed in Europe fall under the nuclear sharing arrangement The weapons are stored within a vault in hardened aircraft shelters, using the USAF WS3 Weapon Storage and Security System. The delivery warplanes used are F-16s and Panavia Tornados.
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There is a problem with the minister's statement. We disclose where and how much nuclear weapons we have overseas.
That's our problem, not theirs. Just because we're stupid doesn't mean they have to be as well.
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There are a couple of glaring omissions on the map. Two in the UK and one other in Italy that I know of, as far as US nuclear weapons go.
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Don't forget the Aircraft Carriers and subs. The only people who would have believed the Russians would be honest were Obama and his administration since they have no expertise in foreign affairs or, apparently, history. "Trust but verify" as one president said.
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Don't forget the Aircraft Carriers and subs. The only people who would have believed the Russians would be honest were Obama and his administration since they have no expertise in foreign affairs or, apparently, history. "Trust but verify" as one president said.
They are talking about tactical missiles in Europe in this article. But subs and ships do have tactical nuckes.However in the meantime, NATO is moving forwards with a plan to upgrade its tactical nuclear weapons with precision guidance that would make them equivalent to strategic weapons in effects and to carry them on stealth aircraft that are much more survivable against modern air defenses
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There are a couple of glaring omissions on the map. Two in the UK and one other in Italy that I know of, as far as US nuclear weapons go.
The map is correct
http://www.nrdc.org/nuclear/euro/euro.pdf
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That's our problem, not theirs. Just because we're stupid doesn't mean they have to be as well.
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Good Point but we are honest about our nuclear capability. We have been honest since 1945.The Russians have been always been deceitful about their capability.
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"Russia does not intend to disclose information about the storage places of its tactical nuclear weapons or about their amount, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry department for security and disarmament Mikhail Ulyanov has said."
They probably are not really sure where they all are, and figured that sounding tough when asked was the better option out of the two available.
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Good Point but we are honest about our nuclear capability. We have been honest since 1945.The Russians have been always been deceitful about their capability.
Honesty isn't always the best policy. Most of us should be plenty glad that the Allies were deceitful about their intentions to invade mainland Europe in WWII.
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Honesty isn't always the best policy. Most of us should be plenty glad that the Allies were deceitful about their intentions to invade mainland Europe in WWII.
It shows to the world that we have nothing to hide, while the Russians are hiding key parts of their program. Though, there are some programs that are still hidden such as the yield of Operation: Frigate Bird. The government does sometimes "sanitize" much of their commentary in declassified nuclear documentaries. Not like Moscow. They have most of their program under lock and key. What are they hiding? At least you have a chance of seeing much our program if you file a FOIA.
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It shows to the world that we have nothing to hide, while the Russians are hiding key parts of their program.
Hitler would say no one is going to ask about honesty from a country which has been subjugated to a stronger power.
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Hitler would say no one is going to ask about honesty from a country which has been subjugated to a stronger power.
Hitler hid key parts of his program just like the Russians. Anyways, we knew what he was up to when the British broke the Enigma code at Bletchley Park . After the war was over Anglo-American technology was open to world.Radar (in particular the greatly improved cavity magnetron and design for the VT fuse), details of Frank Whittle's jet engine. Though these may be considered the most significant including designs for rockets, superchargers, gyroscopic gunsights, submarine detection devices, self-sealing fuel tanks and plastic explosives. Most importantly, we made the world known that we had the power of the atom.
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It shows to the world that we have nothing to hide, while the Russians are hiding key parts of their program. Though, there are some programs that are still hidden such as the yield of Operation: Frigate Bird. The government does sometimes "sanitize" much of their commentary in declassified nuclear documentaries. Not like Moscow. They have most of their program under lock and key. What are they hiding? At least you have a chance of seeing much our program if you file a FOIA.
Then why was Edward Snowden such a nasty surprise to the US? The fact is, the US has plenty to hide, and when it comes to the nation's military forces, hiding the complete truth about those forces is the better course of action.
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Then why was Edward Snowden such a nasty surprise to the US? The fact is, the US has plenty to hide, and when it comes to the nation's military forces, hiding the complete truth about those forces is the better course of action.
Snowden was an anarchist who wanted to bring the system down. Snowden was part of a system that had no controls.The proliferation of the Internet and the growth of technology has made it even harder for secrets to come out in the open.The United States conducted around 1,054 nuclear tests (by official count) between 1945 and 1992, including 216 atmospheric, underwater, and space tests.You can go on the Internet and see the results of those tests we have conducted.We have declassified most of the data for the general public to see.On December 7, 1993 and June 27, 1994, the Secretary of Energy declassified information related to previously unannounced nuclear weapons tests; simultaneous detonations associated with nuclear weapons tests; yields of an additional 77 atmospheric tests; and yields of 20 underground nuclear weapons tests that released radioactivity detected off the Nevada Test Site.There are books that are published to see both American and Russian nuclear data. Under SALT,INF ,START and SORT treaties we must declare what we have in our arsenals.The Russians inspect our missiles and we inspect their missiles. I do agree that there are certain things to be secret such as the development of new weapon systems but there are certain things like old atom bomb tests and nuclear treaty obligations must be open.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/12/15/disruptions-internets-sad-legacy-no-more-secrets/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/nuclear/nv209nar.pdf
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/nuclear/209chron.pdf
http://www.fas.org/nuke/guide/usa/nuclear/209alpha.pdf