Kremlin plans second Grom nuclear drill this year
TETIANA LOZOVENKO – TUESDAY, 25 OCTOBER 2022, 15:27
The Russian Federation plans to conduct a second Grom nuclear deterrence exercise in 2022. The first exercise took place a few days before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Source: Military news outlet Defense Express
Details: Defence Express reports that Russia is planning to conduct the Grom exercises after the end of the Steadfast Noon nuclear deterrence drill, which began on 17 October and will last until 30 October.
The exact dates of Grom-2022 have not yet been announced. In addition, as the military news outlet explains, the Russian Federation must provide a warning about these exercises in advance so that it does not look like a nuclear attack. These will be the second exercises in a year since the prior year’s exercises were not held in 2021 but postponed to 19 February 2022.
Quote: "We are talking about launches from 3 submarine missile carriers, hypersonic missiles, land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles, launches from strategic aviation aircraft, as well as a test launch of the RS-28 Sarmat. Considering the list of forces and means, the north of the Russian Federation will be the key test area.
We note that any launches do not mean the use of nuclear weapons."
More details: Defense Express notes that Russia conducted its last nuclear tests in 1990 when an underground group detonation of 8 charges with a total capacity of 70 kilotons was carried out. Since then, Russia has not officially tested nuclear warheads.
At the same time, Russia will be checking the readiness of its intercontinental ballistic missiles, the terms of operation for which have long exceeded all standards.
In particular, the release of the R-36M2 Voevoda ended with the collapse of the USSR, and its maximum service life was estimated until 2005, after which it was "extended" until 2020. The test of real readiness is carried out by firing the oldest rocket.
According to the military news outlet, the last UR-100N (RS-18) missile was released before 1985, and the Topol missiles, which were in service in the 1980s, were upgraded to the Topol-M in the mid-1990s. The Russian Federation still has 18 Soviet Topols, and 78 Topol-M were manufactured until 2011. In addition, since 2009, the Russian Federation has had about 170 units of a newer modernisation of Topol under the name Yars.
The condition of Russia's nuclear arsenal also raises questions.
Quote: "That is, if we take the ground component, then 88 missiles were produced more than 30 years ago, 78 units about 20 years ago, which is almost 50% of the entire arsenal. A similar situation, approximately, applies to submarine-launched ballistic missiles."
Background: In September, Oleksii Reznikov, the Minister of Defence of Ukraine, said that Russia’s nuclear arsenal may be well beyond its date of expiry: "if you press the button, it can explode right there".
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