Russia Moves Its "Doomsday Missile" Closer To Europe
From its current location, the missile can reach London or Berlin in a matter of minutes...
Russian missile fueling tanker.
In a move designed to flex its nuclear muscle, Russia has redeployed its Yars intercontinental ballistic missile closer to Europe.
The missile, also known in the West as the “Doomsday missile,” has been moved to the Kozelsk military base in the western part of Russia, some 1,500 kilometers from Moscow and 2,400 kilometers from London.
Taking into account its over Mach 30 top speed, the missile can hit London in less than five minutes.
The Kozelsk regiment, where the new missile was loaded into a silo, was the first in Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces to begin upgrading with Yars missiles. The move came hours after Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoygu said that his nation was paying “special attention to the formation of strategic naval nuclear forces.”
In a meeting with Russian military chiefs, the minister added that the share of modern ships in the naval nuclear force has reached 100 percent after three nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines entered the Navy’s service.
Meanwhile, Russia also plans to test the world’s largest ballistic missile, known as Satan 2, in the Arctic region.
Last week, Russian missile forces loaded an intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with the nuclear-capable Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle into a launch silo in southern Russia.
The RS-24 Yars missile has a range of 11,000 kilometers and can carry up to 10 independently targetable warheads of 150 kilotons each. Designed to defeat current and future air defenses, the missile has a top speed of 36,800 kilometers per hour, meaning it is over 30 times faster than the speed of sound.
Although the top speed of the world’s current fastest anti-ballistic missile, the U.S.’s GBI (Ground-Based Interceptor), is classified, estimates range from Mach 16 to Mach 20, which, taking into account the Yars’ speed and the reaction time for detection and targeting would make the Yars practically untouchable.
...
