And I thought the Cold War with Russia was over!

I discovered an article that was posted a couple of months ago that was posted by a gentleman named Adam Estes. It read as follows:

‘Maybe they’re getting in line early for the premiere of the Red Dawn remake. Or perhaps they’re planning some sort of surprise victory parade for newly reelected President Barack Obama. It’s possible that they got lost on their way to Bermuda, where they were looking for a respite from the cold winters in Moscow. Whatever the reason, the Russians have been hanging out in nuclear submarines along the East Coast, just outside of United States waters, and it’s making the U.S. military a little bit nervous.

‘Earlier this week, news of a Russian nuclear attack sub trolling the waters about 275 miles off the coast of the Carolinas and Georgia leaked to the press, uncovering a story that would be more at home in the Cold War than 2012. The Sierra-2 submarine is one of Russia’s newer ships, and with a titanium hull and the capability of transporting nuclear warheads (10 of them), it’s a serious war machine. This latest sighting comes just a couple of months after reports of a Russian Akula-class submarine patrolling the Gulf of Mexico, though that encounter was not confirmed by the military like this latest one was. It’s unclear if a Sean Connery was at the helm of any of these subs.’

-------------

Of particular interest to me was the fact that this class of submarine carries on board the SS-N-21 Sampson SLCM (sub launched cruise missile) equipped with one 200 kiloton nuclear warhead. (Note that the bomb exploded over Hiroshima Japan was only on the order of 15 kilotons). I have been informed that, at any given time, there are many of these subs patrolling just outside US waters and that the reason for that would be to use the sub as a fast response nuclear deterrent. I then came across this interesting tidbit which went into some more detail…

----------------------

‘Russia is believed to have 322 land-based ICBMs carrying 1,087 strategic nuclear warheads; at any given time, probably 900 of these are capable of being launched within a few minutes warning. Many of the Russian ICBMs are more than 30 years old. According to a former high-ranking Soviet officer, the commanding officers of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces have the ability to launch their ICBMs directly from their headquarters, by-passing all lower levels of command. (I have to wonder what would happen if one of these guys went totally crazy)?

The Russians also have nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles kept at launch-ready status, although Russian subs are not always kept in position to launch (unlike the US Tridents). Missiles launched from Russian submarines on patrol off the US East Coast can, however, hit Washington, D.C., in about 10 minutes.’

So, while the United States is currently focused on ‘hollowing out’ our military, it would seem to me that Russia is heading in a diametrically opposite direction. Is that a good thing?