Putin tests 4 ballistic missiles today; 2 bombers in Venezuela

In what seems a snap check for all out nuclear war drill, Putin observed the readiness of strategic forces - all at once. Land based ICBM from two independent locations, submarines from both Northern and Pacific fleets. At the same time two strategic bombers stay in Venezuela for a second day. Some MSM post it as a secondary news found only upon google search, and most of them don't post it at all. You decide!

The Defense Ministry has confirmed the launches of two silo-based and sea-based ballistic missiles apiece as part of the snap check drills.
“Missile Forces conducted launches of a RS-12M Topol ballistic missile from the Plesetsk space center and a RS-20V Voyevoda ballistic missile from the Dombarovsky missile site [in central Russia],” the ministry said in a statement.
“Both missiles hit the designated targets at the Kura testing range on the Kamchatka Peninsula,” the statement said.
The Defense Ministry said in a separate statement that Russian strategic submarines – the Delta IV-class Bryansk from the Northern Fleet and the Delta III-class Svyatoy Georgy Pobedonosets from the Pacific Fleet – launched ballistic missiles while submerged in the Barents and the Okhotsk seas.

en.ria.ru...

In addition to that, 4 tactical nuclear missiles Iskander and Tochka have been tested www.interfax.ru... as well as S-300 and S-400 by the space forces. Besides that, it is said the long range aviation took part in the snap drills, without giving details. Whether those are the 2 Tu-160 in Venezuela or other planes involved, it is not clear.

This is probably in response to the joint usa/israel jerk move a month back launching missiles "unannounced" in the Mediterranean sea

Russian nuclear capable bombers were buzzing our base in Guam causing fighters to be scrambled not so long ago when we were positioning missile defense systems there in response to the North Koreans.

We just have to understand that right now our leadership is weak, the rest of the world knows it, and they will take advantage of it. It makes for a tense 3 years, especially when you know how itchy our current leadership seems to be to bomb people for no real reason as a first response (Syria) or drone them coupled with complete foreign policy incompetence.

And surveying the 2016 landscape doesn't show me much hope for our future prospects. I don't see anyone who can speak softly and carry a big stick as it were who is likely to get anywhere near being elected.

They have to train as well. The Russian military until very recently has been in horrendous shape. They have had very few units capable of performing their mission, and have had to turn to the West to buy new equipment from.

reply to post by Zaphod58

yes they train and train big. As far as the equipment bought from the West, it were several French landing ships class Mistral. One is almost ready to join Russian navy. Most of the weaponry is made in Russia and one of the best in the world.

The above snap training is a big news. I don't remember the last time 4 ballistic missiles flying in different direction, i.e. to simulate exchange, were tested somewhere 2008 but not around the Georgian crisis rather around Winter.

Putin is named man N1 on Forbes today.

Zaphod58
They have to train as well. The Russian military until very recently has been in horrendous shape. They have had very few units capable of performing their mission, and have had to turn to the West to buy new equipment from.

Sounds like training to me as well. Don't think it's the opening moves for WWIII.

reply to post by ketsuko

Yopu are in Guam?
Hope you will intercept all NKorean crazy tests that nobody knows how many or dangerous they are. I'd fear more one dictator with only 10 bombs than the civilized Russian leaders with 10 thousand.

Routine training and really nothing to get worked up about. The protocols of advanced warning of ballistic missile launches between the US and Russia have been in existence for years. The New START treaty makes it even more transparent as no side wants a miscalculation. Even the deployment of the Tu-160s to Venezuela will have been covered and pre-announced if they intend to deploy for a period exceeding 24 hours.

NOTIFICATION OF LAUNCH OF AN ICBM OR SLBM
1. ANC(RNC) /SOA YY-xxxx/15
2 . REFERENCE (S) :
3. CONTENT
A. PLANNED DATE OF LAUNCH: DD-MMM-YYYY
B . LAUNCH AREA: (Name)
C. REENTRY VEHICLE IMPACT AREA: (Yes/No)
(If Yes, provide details)
1) DD-MMD, DDD-MMD
2) DD-MMD, DDD-MMD
3) DD-MMD, DDD-MMD
4) DD-MMD, DDD-MMD
- OR -
1) A CIRCLE HAVING A RADIUS OF: XXXX.X KM; AND
2) THE CENTER HAVING COORDINATES: DD-MMD, DDD-MMD
D. SINGLE LAUNCH/MORE THAN ONE LAUNCH:
E. TELEMETRY BROADCAST FREQUENCIES (MHz) (If Applicable)


NOTIFICATION OF VISIT OF A HEAVY BOMBER OF A TYPE SUBJECT TO
THE TREATY TO A SPECIFIC LOCATION OR A GEOGRAPHIC REGION WHEN
VISIT EXCEEDS 24 HOURS
1. ANC(RNC)/SOA
2 . REFERENCE ( S ) :
3. CONTENT
A. HEAVY BOMBER TYPE, CATEGORY (AND VARIANT, IF
APPLICABLE) :
B. NUMBER OF HEAVY BOMBERS: XXXX
C . UNIQUE IDENTIFIER (S)
1) XXX
2) XXX
D. DATE AND TIME OF ARRIVAL: DD-MMM-YYYY HH:MM
E. FACILITY AT WHICH BASED: (Name/Coordinates)
F. LOCATION OR GEOGRAPHIC REGION VISITING:
(Name/Coordinates or Geographic Region)
4. REMARKS:
5. END OF ANC(RNC)/SOA YY-XXXX/II

www.nti.org...

The Kuznetsov carrier group is scheduled to make an extended trip to the Mediterranean this year and possibly extending into 2014. The Russians have scheduled the start of the deployment sometime in November. No doubt there will be suitable doom and gloom WW3 posts surrounding this deployment?

Kuznetsov deployment announced back in June 2013.

Google translation

03.06.2013

Heavy aircraft carrying cruiser (TAVKR) "Admiral Kuznetsov" at the end of the year will go to the Mediterranean, where he joined the permanent operational connection of the Russian Navy. The journalists said Navy Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov.

By this time, to be completed scheduled maintenance cruiser. It is planned that the ship will be released in the long march to perform a number of tasks within the group of Navy ships. In particular, a number of problems for a long voyage on board the cruiser will perform marine pilots of the Northern Fleet.

"Admiral Kuznetsov" is going to make a long-distance ocean hike

flot.com...

reply to post by 2012newstart


No, just heard it from people who were. I wasn't implying they were getting ready just teasing, testing. Seeing how awake and aware we are, but if they really thought we had a strong leadership, do you think they'd push so hard?

I don't know how they inform each other about the long range aviation, but most of the flights in the North around Canada and Alaska come as unannounced. Canadian minister asked Russia to provide advanced info when "such kind of traffic ought to occur". That practice in post-Soviet time was started by Putin. Perhaps the Tu160 voyage is indeed pre-informed.
Right now the two planes are in Nicaragua - Ria Novosti. Will they stop in Cuba? It is more political gesture than anything else. Still those are 12x 2 nukes onboard that fly pretty close to US. In case of WW3 they have minutes to their targets and are practically unstoppable.

Thanks for Kuznetsov schedule. As far as I know Peter the Great group is in the Arctic. It is good to check those big ships movements constantly. We can't check subs of course but the ships voyage is usually announced in the media. If you use Russian you can search in Yandex. Moskva was in Venezuela prior its mission in Mediterranean and it was skipped by the news.

RT doesn't report the current events, a big surprise! Only Ria Novosti in English, besides the Russian media. For ex. the 4 tactical missiles weren't announced in English. Even the Russian text is vague enough, what to say about the censored info that appears in Rus-English outlets.

reply to post by ketsuko


I don't blame Obama, you may not agree with me. Obama is much more cautious than Bush.
Bush nearly started WW3 in Georgia. Russia moved Tochka tactical nukes in Georgia.
Bush moved several ships one at the time in Black sea, who presumably had nuclear missiles on board. They were coming together with NATO ships (one per country according to century old treaty). So you would have a dozen of NATO ships all within hundreds miles of Russia. Putin and Medvedev were in Sochi residence on the same Black sea. I don't know what protection they would have in case of surprise attack. It was a big psychological impact that even the cold Putin couldn't hide. He gave exclusive interview to CNN and said, 'here we are sitting on the coast of the Black sea in the city called Sochi, and there are the American ships whose missiles have exactly that range of 500 km... There will be answer, not hysterical, but there will be...' (not exact quote). Generals called for putting nukes on low space orbits and bombers in Cuba. Putin reacted by sending Russian ships and planes to Caribbean next fall just on a short voyage. It could be Cuba-2 and perhaps after 20 years the historians will tell us it was indeed.

On that background Obama acts really cautious and wise. For ex. he didn't scramble jets this time, the news didn't report it.

Is today his birthday maybe? I mean if I were the uber-macho leader of an uber-macho nation of vodka officianadoes, I'd play with some of my toys on my birthday too! Not his birthday? Well, he's Putin goddammitt and he will kick your ass if you mess with him...a KGB colonel for christ sakes!

HUMBLEONE
Is today his birthday maybe? I mean if I were the uber-macho leader of an uber-macho nation of vodka officianadoes, I'd play with some of my toys on my birthday too! Not his birthday?

The world would in my opinion be a better place for it if the US national security apparatus did the same and simply played with it's toys instead of getting involved in countries with issues and making them them either worse or positively impossible to deal with. When the Russians start doing things other than getting militarily involved in border countries ( wouldn't it be fantastic if we could just get the US back to doing that) you can let me know and i will reconsider.

Well, he's Putin goddammitt and he will kick your ass if you mess with him...a KGB colonel for christ sakes!

edit on 31-10-2013 by HUMBLEONE because: slippe on that lay-lo man. Dass it.

Obama is much more of a badass as he assassinates people with high tech gizmo's, take part in a weekly" who will we "whack" this week session, while the previous president had trouble framing sentences. The Russians have NOTHING on the utterly ruthless and vindictive US national security state and in most instances appear positively mired in sentimentalist rhetoric while the US bombs, assassinates and spy's at will.

Good luck with trying to paint the Russians, Iranians, Syrians, Chinese as problem countries while the revelations from Snowden and others keeps leaking out....

Stellar

Zaphod58
They have to train as well. The Russian military until very recently has been in horrendous shape. They have had very few units capable of performing their mission, and have had to turn to the West to buy new equipment from.

Yes the Russians armed forces must train as well and they do not often have occasion to practice on defenseless villagers in so many varied climates and terrains... The Russian military has for the last few decades spent what resources it had ( and i think perhaps sometimes or often just as corruptly and inefficiently as the Pentagon)on the essential upkeep of it's nuclear and air defense networks with the remaining resources going to the ground and air forces with not much at all left for the navy. What they did was to at even their worse time guarantee that no aggressor would mistake their strategic forces for their often rusting navy and it seems no one did in fact make that mistake.

As for buying from the west i am glad to hear that the French are now part of the west again and that 'Old Europe' is suddenly counted equal enough to spy on again. At the height of the cold war there was even technological/equipment exchanges between the USSR and US so i don't know why it should be seen as weakness to buy something that you either do not think you can improve on or do not wish to develop the capacity to do so yourself. If what little manufacturing jobs now remain in the United states were not related to the defense industry( fat for local contractors etc) i am sure they could often buy equivalent technology or system from Europe or Asia without compromising national security more than is being done by bombing random villages and creating the resistance fighters of the future.

Thanks for contributing Zaphod.

Stellar