Classified documents seen by Financial Times showed maps of potential European targets, including France’s west coast, the port town of Barrow-in-Furness in the UK, and naval facilities in Norway.

They also contain an instruction to maximize the country’s available nuclear weapons “in combination with other means of destruction.”

Earlier this year, leaked German military documents floated the possibility of Moscow going to war with NATO if it wins in Ukraine.

Subsequent intelligence reports claimed that Russia’s increasing military activities on its borders could indicate that it was preparing for a major conflict beyond the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Consistent With Current Capability?

The secret files allegedly mandate the Russian Navy retain its capability to carry multiple nuclear weapons on its surface ships.

These weapons include anti-submarine and anti-aircraft guided missiles with powerful nuclear warheads.

Defense analysts who reviewed the documents told Financial Times that the provisions were consistent with Moscow’s current military capabilities.

They were also on par with Russia’s nuclear-related activities and decisions, including lowering its threshold for activating nuclear weapons.

It also expanded its nuclear drills to a military district that borders NATO members Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia.

“Their concept of war is total war,” Middlebury Institute of International Studies professor Jeffrey Lewis said.

The post Russian Navy Trained to Carry Out Nuclear Strikes on NATO: Report appeared first on The Defense Post.

The maiden sea acceptance trial from the Vanguard-class vessel certifies the weapon’s deployability with the second nuclear-powered class of Royal Navy submarines after the Astute.

It involved engaging both surface and submerged targets, allowing the crew to operate the weapon, test-firing it with the vessel’s combat system, and ensuring command and control.

“These firings continue to be a major step in ensuring the Royal Navy’s Spearfish torpedoes remain ready to face the latest threats, with cutting edge technology at the forefront of the weapon’s success,” Commodore Chris Goodsell said.

Upgraded Spearfish

The Spearfish has been the Royal Navy’s primary anti-submarine and anti-surface torpedo for three decades, capable of neutralizing hostile submarines, frigates, destroyers, and large warships.

Its improved variant, the Spearfish Mod 1, features a “new warhead, a safer fuel system, a smarter electronic ‘brain’ and a fiber-optic guidance link with its parent submarine to improve its accuracy and lethality.”

The navy plans to transition its existing Spearfish into the improved version by 2025.

The post Royal Navy Tests Upgraded Spearfish Torpedo on Vanguard Nuclear Sub appeared first on The Defense Post.

The US and China in November held rare talks on nuclear arms control, part of a bid to ease mistrust ahead of a summit between leader Joe Biden and Xi Jinping.

Further dialogue had not been publicly announced since, with a White House official in January urging Beijing to respond “to some of our more substantive ideas on risk reduction.”

But China’s foreign ministry on Wednesday said recent US sales of arms to self-ruled Taiwan were “seriously undermining the political atmosphere for continued arms control consultations between the two sides.”

“The US has… continued its arms sales to Taiwan, and taken a series of negative actions that seriously damage China’s core interests and undermine political mutual trust,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said.

“For this reason, China has decided to suspend negotiations with the United States on a new round of arms control and non-proliferation consultations,” he added.

The Pentagon in a congressionally mandated report last October said that China was developing its nuclear arsenal more quickly than the United States had earlier anticipated.

China possessed more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May 2023 and is likely to have more than 1,000 by 2030, it said.

The United States currently possesses about 3,700 nuclear warheads, trailing Russia’s roughly 4,500, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which counts 410 warheads for China.

“China is willing to maintain communication with the United States on international arms control issues on the basis of mutual respect,” Lin said.

“But the United States must respect China’s core interests and create necessary conditions for dialogue,” he warned.

The United States switched diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979 but it has remained Taiwan’s most important partner and biggest arms supplier, sparking repeated condemnations from China.

Washington in June approved two military sales to Taiwan worth approximately $300 million in total, mostly of spare and repair parts for the island’s F-16 fighter jets.

The post China Says Halted Nuclear Arms Talks With US Over Taiwan Weapons Sales appeared first on The Defense Post.

Meant for the European Defence Agency, the system utilizes an innovative data fusion cell that seamlessly integrates information from various sources, such as sensors and drones.

It also helps in swiftly detecting and assessing hazardous substances in an operational environment, reducing the risks to personnel.

As the cell acts as a centralized hub for all collected data, commanders can quickly gain critical insights that could aid rapid decision-making.

“Normally, it would take us two hours to achieve this result,” an Austrian CBRN defense official said. “With the use of these modern technologies, we can reduce this time to 40 to 45 minutes, and we don’t have to bring soldiers directly to the source of danger.”

Revolutionizing CBRN Defense

According to Frequentis, its new CBRN reconnaissance system is designed to speed up threat analysis and cut response times.

It is also meant to revolutionize CBRN defense, especially as threats continue to grow in the region.

“Our [data fusion cell] has transformed CBRN defense in Europe, empowering military personnel with real-time intelligence to respond swiftly and effectively to emerging threats,” company vice president Peter Skiczuk said.

Frequentis plans to continue developing the system to ensure it is ready for full military deployment.

The post Austrian Firm Unveils Drone-Based CBRN Detection System appeared first on The Defense Post.

During the test, they assessed the Mk21A’s design components and technologies, further informing design and future flight tests.

Lockheed is maturing the vehicle’s design, including the arming and fuzing subsystem and support equipment, the company said.

“This progress is built on a strong foundation — Lockheed Martin’s 65-plus years of demonstrated exceptional performance in reentry technologies and a pioneering digital engineering approach on this program from its beginning,” Lockheed VP of Strategic Reentry Jay Watson said.

“We remain focused on delivering this capability for the warfighter as a trusted partner to the US Air Force for ICBM reentry systems and modernization of the deterrent triad.”

MK21A Reentry Vehicle

Lockheed Martin clinched a $1-billion contract to build the vehicle last year.

It will carry the future ICBM payload — the W87-1 nuclear warhead, an upgrade on the W87 carried by the operational Minuteman III ICBM Mk 21 reentry vehicle.

Work is being performed in Pennsylvania and is expected to be completed by October 2026.

The future LGM-35A Sentinel ICBM is expected to start replacing the ground-based Minuteman-III from 2029.

The post US Air Force Flight-Tests Future ICBM Reentry Vehicle appeared first on The Defense Post.

The world’s nine nuclear-armed states jointly spent $91 billion on their arsenals last year, according to a new report from the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN).

That report, and a separate one from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), indicated that nuclear weapons states are dramatically scaling up spending as they modernize and even deploy new nuclear-armed weapons.

“I think it is fair to say there is a nuclear arms race under way,” ICAN chief Melissa Parke told AFP.

Wilfred Wan, head of SIPRI’s weapons of mass destruction program, meanwhile warned in a statement that “we have not seen nuclear weapons playing such a prominent role in international relations since the Cold War.”

SIPRI’s report showed that the total estimated number of nuclear warheads in the world actually declined somewhat to 12,121 at the start of this year, from 12,512 a year earlier.

But while some of that included older warheads scheduled to be dismantled, it said 9,585 were in stockpiles for potential use — nine more than a year earlier.

And 2,100 were kept in a state of “high operational alert” on ballistic missiles.

Nearly all of those were held by the United States and Russia, but China was for the first time believed to also have some warheads on high operational alert, SIPRI said.

“While the global total of nuclear warheads continues to fall as Cold War-era weapons are gradually dismantled, regrettably we continue to see year-on-year increases in the number of operational nuclear warheads,” SIPRI director Dan Smith said.

Nuclear Weapons Spending Jump

The spending surge reported by ICAN appeared to back that up.

The report showed that in 2023 alone, nuclear weapons spending worldwide jumped by $10.8 billion from a year earlier, with the United States accounting for 80 percent of that increase.

The US share of total spending, $51.5 billion, “is more than all the other nuclear-armed countries put together,” said ICAN.

The next biggest spender was China, at $11.8 billion, followed by Russia, spending $8.3 billion.

Britain’s spending meanwhile rose significantly for the second year in a row, swelling 17 percent to $8.1 billion.

Spending for 2023 by the nuclear-armed states — which also include France, India, Israel, Pakistan, and North Korea — jumped more than 33 percent from the $68.2 billion spent in 2018, when ICAN first began collecting this data, it said.

Since then, the nuclear-armed states have spent an estimated total of $387 billion on the deadly weapons, the report showed.

‘Investing in Armageddon’

Parke slammed “the billions of dollars being squandered on nuclear weapons” as “a profound and unacceptable misallocation of public funds.”

She highlighted that that money was more than what the World Food Programme estimates is needed to end world hunger.

“And you could plant a million trees for every minute of nuclear weapons spending,” she said.

“These numbers are obscene, and it is money that the state says is going towards weapons that… will never be used,” she said, pointing to the nuclear deterrence doctrine.

The investments are not only wasteful but also extremely dangerous, she warned.

“What happens when deterrence fails?”

Geneva-based ICAN won the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize for its key role in drafting the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which took effect in 2021.

Seventy countries have ratified it to date and more have signed it, although none of the nuclear weapons states have come on board.

“Instead of investing in Armageddon, the nine nuclear-armed states should follow the example of almost half the world’s countries and join the treaty… and make a real contribution to global security,” said Alicia Sanders-Zakre, a co-author of Monday’s ICAN report.

The post Nuclear Arms Spending Soars as Global Tensions Swell: Studies appeared first on The Defense Post.

The country’s defense ministry said soldiers and sailors from the northern Leningrad military district had rehearsed the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons as part of the exercises.

Leningrad district borders NATO members Lithuania, Norway, Poland, Finland, Latvia, and Estonia.

The move is seen as an apparent attempt by Moscow to broaden the disclosed geography of its nuclear drills, from the southern military district bordering Ukraine to areas covering all of Russia’s European border.

Response to the West?

According to the ministry, the drills include obtaining special training ammunition for the Iskander-M tactical missile system and fitting them into launch vehicles.

Troops also practice covert movement into a designated position for launching nuclear-capable missiles.

“The crews of navy ships involved in the training will equip sea-based cruise missiles with special mock warheads and enter designated patrol areas,” it said.

The decision to cover areas bordering NATO states comes as some of the alliance’s members have permitted Ukraine to use their donated weapons for strikes inside Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already warned against the West’s participation in the war, saying Moscow could provide long-range weapons to other nations to strike Western targets.

He also re-issued his country’s readiness to use nuclear weapons if its sovereignty is threatened.

The post Russia Expands Nuclear Drills to Areas Bordering NATO States appeared first on The Defense Post.

Speaking at an arms control event last week, National Security Council official Pranay Vaddi said Moscow and Beijing’s rejection of nuclear arsenal limitation highlights the increased need to employ a more competitive approach to prepare for these threats.

He further stated that with the absence of an agreement, more nuclear weapons may be required to effectively deter adversaries and protect the American people and allies.

“We may reach a point in the coming years where an increase from current deployed numbers is required. We need to be fully prepared to execute if the president makes that decision,” Vaddi explained.

At present, the US observes a limit of 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads as stipulated in a 2010 treaty with Russia.

Moscow has already suspended its participation in the agreement because of Washington’s support for Ukraine.

‘At Breakneck Pace’

In 2023, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said he believed there was no need to increase the size of America’s nuclear arsenal to deter the combined forces of Russia, China, and other rivals.

He also announced that the US will abide by the nuclear weapons limits set by its treaty with Russia until 2026.

But Vaddi pointed out that these adversaries are all expanding and diversifying their nuclear arsenals “at a breakneck pace.”

China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran are reportedly “cooperating and coordinating with each other in ways that run counter to peace and stability, threaten the US, our allies and our partners, and exacerbate region[al] tensions.”

Last month, Moscow fueled nuclear war concerns after President Vladimir Putin ordered his military to hold nuclear weapons drills near Ukraine.

The post US Mulls Increased Deployment of Nuclear Weapons Amid Rising Threats appeared first on The Defense Post.

The first test, which occurred on June 4, involved an unarmed ICBM being launched from the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.

According to Air Force Global Strike Command, the test-launch aimed to “verify the safety, security, effectiveness, and readiness of the weapon system.”

Two days later, another unarmed Minuteman III was launched from the same location, traveling approximately 4,200 miles (6,759 kilometers) toward the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on the Marshall Islands.

The activity was reportedly meant to demonstrate that America’s nuclear deterrent is reliable and effective to deter modern threats.

“These tests hold immense significance, not only for our nation’s defense, but also serve as a pivotal moment in showcasing the exceptional capabilities and expertise of our dedicated team,” Space Launch Delta 30 vice commander Col. Bryan Titus said.

‘Not the Result of Current World Events’

The ICBM tests happened amid multiple geopolitical rifts involving US allies.

Washington has become the most important ally for Ukraine, which has been battling invading Russian forces since 2022.

It also serves as Taiwan’s most important military backer, with President Joe Biden reassuring the island nation of military support in the event of a Chinese invasion.

Earlier this week, an American B-1B strategic bomber dropped a precision-guided bomb in drills over the Korean Peninsula after Pyongyang sent hundreds of trash-filled balloons toward South Korea.

Despite the controversial timing of the tests, the Air Force Global Strike Command clarified they had nothing to do with current world events.

The post US Test-Fires Minuteman III ICBM in Show of Nuclear Deterrence appeared first on The Defense Post.

The Advanced Nuclear Power for Installations (ANPI) program seeks a new, full-lifecycle power plant that will generate and distribute electricity across in-country army sites by the end of the decade.

Under the notice, the DIU requires industry partners to plan the design, construction, operation, demonstration, and management of potential microreactors.

The resulting solutions should follow standards set by the US Army Regulatory Authority and the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission throughout the technology’s operability.

Designers may submit one or more approaches inclusive of associated procedures, policies, and processes to the agency.

Selected proposals will be eligible for sole-sourced, follow-on contracts and production agreements for continued procurement until the end of the reactor’s lifecycle.

Requirements

The DIU wrote that the ANPI nuclear microreactor prototype should have a 20 percent less Uranium-235 requirement, and meet 100 percent of critical load requirements from 3 to 10 megawatts of electrical power.

The prototype should also be controlled within an army base only, and have integration features with other local infrastructure, operations centers, and maintenance systems.

It should have a commercial shore power connection and an alternative independent backup source that doesn’t utilize remote or wireless operation.

The ANPI reactor will encompass less than 5 acres (2 hectares) at an army installation, with its corresponding protected area not exceeding 540 feet (165 meters) in diameter.

Additionally, the plant’s irradiated core material should be removed from the base within five years of a contract’s completion or termination.

Energy Resilience by 2030

In its announcement, the DIU highlighted the vulnerability of existing military base power sources to modern threats and how to alleviate corresponding gaps.

“Currently, the US Army is reliant on off-site electricity providers … to conduct its globe-spanning missions in air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace,” the DIU said. “This energy dependence creates mission risks due to disruptions from extreme weather and cybersecurity attacks.”

“While current renewable energy solutions, such as wind and solar energy are carbon-free, they are intermittent, and require battery storage or other solutions to mitigate the intermittency.”

“Therefore, the Army is seeking a novel approach using recent advances in the nuclear industry that can provide continuous/reliable power regardless of weather conditions to 1) maintain military mission continuity and 2) comply with Congressional mandate under the 2021 National Defense Authorization Act to provide its critical missions with a goal of 99.9 percent reliable energy by 2030.”

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