3/2/2018
“The containment of Russia didn’t succeed, It’s time to recognize that reality. This isn’t a bluff” Said Russian President Vladimir Putin during his two hour state-of-the-union address in Moscow.
During the speech, Putin claimed that Russia had successfully tested a cruise missile that was propelled by a nuclear-powered engine. The missile will be able to fly close to the ground and follow an unpredictable flight path, rendering existing and future missile defenses “useless,” Putin said. He also said that in December, Russia had completed a multiyear testing cycle for an underwater, nuclear-powered drone. The successful tests, he said, “will allow the development of a complete new type of weapon — a strategic complex of nuclear arms with rockets fitted with a nuclear-propulsion engine.”
Top U.S. generals have issued warnings for months about the development and deployment of new Russian cruise missiles, urging Congress and the Pentagon to step up technology that could better defend against them. Cruise missiles hug the terrain, flying low and fast, allowing them to evade radar and missile defense systems that are designed to shoot down missiles that fly more slowly and at an arc.
Russia has developed new cruise missiles “with the capability to hold targets at risk at ranges we haven’t seen before,” Air Force Gen. Lori Robinson, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, which is assigned to defend the continental United States, said in Senate testimony in mid-February.
President Trump, who comments on everything, had no comment.
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