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ICBMs are launched by the Russian Navy’s Vladimir Monomakh nuclear submarine from the Sera of Okhotsk, Russia.
On Saturday (local time) a Russian nuclear submarine successfully tested four ICBMs in a demonstration of the readiness of Moscow’s nuclear forces amid tension with the United States.
The Defense Ministry said the Pacific Fleet submarine Vladimir Monomakh launched four Bulava missiles in rapid succession from an underwater position in the Okhotsk Sea.
Its fictitious warheads hit their designated targets at the Chiza firing range in the Arkhangelsk region of northwestern Russia, more than 5,500 kilometers away, the ministry said in a statement.
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In this photo, the Russian navy’s Vladimir Monomakh nuclear submarine is seen before a practice missile launch.
The Vladimir Monomakh is one of the newest Borei-class nuclear submarines that carry 16 Bulava missiles each and are intended to serve as the core of the naval component of the nation’s nuclear forces for decades to come.
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Another submarine of the same type carried out a similar launch of four Bulava missiles in 2018, a costly demonstration of the country’s nuclear deterrent efficiency that mimics the conditions of a major nuclear conflict.
In a report to President Vladimir Putin, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Saturday’s launch concluded with large-scale drills of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces that began on Wednesday.
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The Russian military has conducted mock sweeps of its strategic nuclear forces that included several practice missile launches.
As part of those maneuvers, another Russian nuclear submarine also conducted a practice launch of an ICBM from the Barents Sea, an ICBM was launched from the Plesetsk facility in northwestern Russia, and Tu- strategic bombers were fired. 160 and Tu-95. cruise missiles on test targets in an arctic range.
Russia has expanded its military exercises in recent years amid tensions with the West, as relations have sunk to post-Cold War lows after Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
The series of missile launches comes less than two months before the new START arms control treaty between the United States and Russia expires in early February. Moscow and Washington have discussed the possibility of its extension, but so far they have not managed to overcome their differences.
The new START was signed in 2010 by US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
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The crew of the nuclear submarine.
It limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers, and provides for extensive on-site inspections to verify compliance.
After Moscow and Washington withdrew from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty last year, the New START is the only remaining nuclear arms control agreement between the two countries that still stands.
Advocates of arms control have warned that its expiration would remove any control over US and Russian nuclear forces, in a blow to global stability.
