Senior Russian military leaders recently had conversations to discuss when and how Moscow
might use a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, contributing to heightened concern in Washington
and allied capitals, according to multiple senior American officials.
President Vladimir V. Putin was not a part of the conversations, which were held against
the backdrop of Russia’s intensifying nuclear rhetoric and battlefield setbacks.
But the fact that senior Russian military leaders were even having the discussions alarmed
the Biden administration because it showed how frustrated Russian generals were about
their failures on the ground, and suggests that Putin’s veiled threats to use nuclear
weapons might not just be words.
In this video, Defense Updates analyzes what are tactical nukes which Putin is threatening
to use?
Let's get started.
A tactical nuclear weapon (TNW) or non-strategic
nuclear weapon (NSNW) is a nuclear weapon that is designed to be used on a battlefield
in military situations, mostly with friendly forces in proximity and perhaps even on contested
friendly territory.
Generally smaller in explosive power, they are defined in contrast to strategic nuclear
weapons, which are designed mostly to be targeted at the enemy interior far away from the war
front against military bases, cities, towns, arms industries, and other hardened or larger-area
targets to damage the enemy's ability to wage war.
No tactical nuclear weapon has ever been used in a combat situation.
Tactical nuclear weapons include gravity bombs, short-range missiles, artillery shells, land
mines, depth charges, and torpedoes which are equipped with nuclear warheads.
Also in this category are nuclear-armed ground-based or shipborne surface-to-air missiles
There is no exact definition of the "tactical" category in terms of the range or yield of
the nuclear weapon.
Some experts define this as being in the range of 0.3-50 kt of TNT while others the upper
limit to 50 kt of TNT
A strategic nuclear weapon typically has a yield from 100 kilotons to over a megaton,
with much larger warheads available.
For comparison, the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima had a yield of 15 kt
of TNT and the Fat Man atomic bomb that was detonated over Nagasaki had a yield of 21
kt of TNT.
Some nuclear devices have a so-called “dial-a-yield” feature that effectively limits the extent
of the nuclear reaction in the “physics package" at the warhead's core when the weapon
detonates.
For example, a few variants of the American B-61 family of nuclear bombs can be from as
low as 0.3 kilotons though they have a max power of 400 kt of TNT.
The Pentagon estimates that Russia has a stockpile of as many as 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons,
which are designed to be used on battlefields to overwhelm conventional forces.
Russia has several delivery options:
1.
Employ strike aircraft or bombers to drop the nuke from air.
Tu160 -Blackjack which is the largest combat aircraft in the world can be engaged for this
kind of mission.
2.
Use surface-to-surface missiles like Iskander M. The Iskander M is a mobile short-range
surface-to-surface ballistic missile system produced and deployed by Russia.
It is intended to use conventional or nuclear warheads for the engagement of small and area
targets (both moving and stationary).
Iskander-M system is equipped with 2 solid-propellant single-stage guided missiles, model 9M723K1.
The Iskander-M can carry 800 kg or about 1760 lbs warhead & has a range of 500 km or 310
miles.
3.
Deploy cruise missiles like Kalibr from warships or submarines.
The land attack variant of the missile is equivalent to the American Tomahawk cruise
missile in many parameters such as range, warhead, and propulsion.
It has a 2500 km or 1554 miles range, a 450 kg or 1000 pound warhead and a turbofan engine.
Similar to Tomahawk, it has a speed of Mach 0.8.
When Russia started its campaign against Ukraine on 24th Feb, many experts predicted that they
would roll over the Ukrainian Forces and occupy most of the country in 1-2 weeks.
But this hasn’t happened and Ukraine has even liberated back thousands of sq miles
from Russian occupation.
More than 60k Russian troops along with a significant number of senior military leaders
have lost their lives.
The Russian military has also suffered huge losses of aircraft, helicopters, tanks, and
missiles and is now having to acquire arms from Iran.
Putin also had to order partial mobilization.
There are clear signs of strain in the Russian power circle and internal dynamics are getting
complex.
So, there is a lot of pressure on the Kremlin.
The lowest threshold for use of nuclear weapons by Russia is disputed by experts.
There is no escaping the fact that Russia has tactical nukes in pretty large numbers
and also has suitable delivery options.
Precision guidance coupled with this low-yield warhead, which will also produce less radioactive
fallout, make these weapons more flexible and usable when compared to strategic nukes.
American officials said they had currently seen no evidence that the Russians were moving
nuclear weapons into place or taking other tactical measures to prepare for a strike
but there is a growing concern.
William J. Burns, the CIA director, has previously said that Putin’s “potential desperation”
to extract a victory in Ukraine and setbacks in the war could lead Russia to use one.
John F. Kirby, a National Security Council official, declined to comment on “the particulars
of this reporting” but added “We’ve been clear from the outset that Russia’s
comments about the potential use of nuclear weapons are deeply concerning, and we take
them seriously,”
Kirby said.
“We continue to monitor this as best we can, and we see no indications that Russia
is making preparations for such use.”
Hopefully, saner minds will prevail and we won't witness this kind of situation.