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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhat I'm Starting to Worry About...
It seems insane, but...
Having seen the condition and combat-readiness of the rest of the Soviet - excuse me, RUSSIAN - military assets, I'm starting to worry about their nukes.
Warheads and their delivery systems presumably have maintenance schedules, too.
What if that nutter tries to deploy one/some, and it's not working right?
What if they haven't been stored properly? What if a dodgy trigger sets off a chain reaction?
No, it's not just "over there" - radioactive fallout is a worldwide concern. And all kinds of bad things could happen if their distance-delivery systems are malfunctioning.
You would think they'd put their most serious, best effort into keeping those in tiptop condition, right?
But now I'm just not so sure.
And it's just a little worrisome.
Talk me down, someone who knows about nuke storage, maintenance, deployment, and Russian configurations/management...
anxiously,
Bright
Wingus Dingus
(8,049 posts)Poor training, equipment poorly managed, procedures not followed, etc. It was a big news story during the Obama years. And we are spending millions, last I paid attention, to upgrade/modernize our system and missiles. Who knows what state Russia's program is in.
Kablooie
(18,571 posts)Wingus Dingus
(8,049 posts)or it could be that it's just as compromised as the rest of their capabilities appear. Hard to say.
TygrBright
(20,733 posts)boston bean
(36,186 posts)You cant live in that fear.
I myself refuse to live in it.
Silent3
(15,018 posts)...is the most likely outcome of poor maintenance, or failure of launch systems such as failing to launch at all, exploding when trying to launch, or going off course.
A warhead going off course can only go as far off course as its fuel allows, so a defective short range missile is more likely to hit Russia itself than anything else.
Further, it's hard to accidentally and fully trigger a nuke just because something goes wrong. Some spread of radioactive contaminants could happen if a rocket explodes, but a chemically-exploded warhead is not a very effective "dirty bomb".
Clearly no amount of fallout is good, but a few accidents wouldn't lead to civilization-threatening radiation hazards. Think of something not much worse than Chernobyl or Fukushima, perhaps a bit worse in a supremely bad case.
AntiFascist
(12,792 posts)which they were allowed to test under the Trump regime.
SheilaAnn
(9,664 posts)requiring many other people, and there is no red button.
MarineCombatEngineer
(12,092 posts)Russia, (Putin) has thrown billions of rubles at their Strategic Rocket Forces to modernize them, so I've little doubt that they would perform as expected.
haele
(12,581 posts)Or it won't react to go boom properly. No atomic reaction unless it's regularly maintained.
Knowing the way the Russians maintain their existing hardware, I doubt we're looking at very many ICBMs that are functional. They'd still do lots of damage, though. Just the impact of a dud can take out half a city block.
Haele