Just who in the southern hemisphere has become nuke-worthy from Moscow's point of view?
Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow's military.
The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin's decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year.
In what world does this constitute "revival?" Russia has theoretical bastions in the Barents Sea and Sea of Okhotsk to sail their nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBNs) protected by Russian fleet and air elements from counter-attack and still be able to reach any reasonable target nation.
How does poking their SSBNs outside of those bastions do anything for Russian deterrence? Russia's SSBNs will now simply be more vulnerable to attack by nuclear attack submarines (SSNs) or even simple accidents far from home waters.
I can understand Russian desire to have a naval presence in the Mediterranean again. That interest pre-dates the USSR, after all. That makes sense if Russia wants that.
But sailing SSBNs into the southern hemisphere makes no sense to me from any point of view other than just being a bigger threat to others--and likely just to be a threat to America.
Let me add that sailing into the North Atlantic for these patrols only has the purpose of creating a first-strike capability against us by reducing our detection time for a launch down from the already short 20 minutes for launch from Russia's heartland. Does Russia plan to do that, too? Or is deploying to the South Atlantic just an excuse for Russia' SSBNs to take a long, slow sail past our east coast with only a nominal crossing of the equator?
This is just madness. "Reset," indeed.
