No US Nuclear Missiles in Europe, Vladimir.

No US Nuclear Missiles in Europe, Vladimir.

Copyright 2022 by Michael H. Maggelet

  One outlandish claim circulating in Russian state media and among its Western lackeys are statements that the US and NATO have “missiles in Europe that can hit Moscow in minutes”. Seriously?

  During the 1990’s, I was one of several USAF enlisted liaison’s working with the US Army during Operation Silent Echo from 1990 to 1992. The US Army withdrew all of its tactical nuclear weapons from NATO during that time, and retired and dismantled all of the nuclear warheads. The only nuclear deterrent remaining in USAFE are air delivered bombs (declassified per DOE Office of Classification, WNP-137, 24 March 2011).

  However, Kremlin apologists and Putin’s western lapdogs continue to claim that “US missiles” in eastern Europe are capable of hitting Moscow. This is not true, since the only missile systems deployed in Poland and Romania are short range SM-2 and THAAD anti-ballistic missiles, etc., with conventional warheads. Of course, Comrade Putin is well aware of the capabilities and order of battle of every NATO country via open sources and GRU espionage, but he chooses to ignore the facts when pushing his Chekist/KGB vision of a Nazi style “anschluss” (going so far as to proclaim that the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has Jewish ancestry) and his countrymen are "nazi's". 

 In 2008, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev announced the deployment to Kaliningrad of Iskander surface to surface missiles, in response to the US ballistic missile defense program (while conveniently ignoring their own tactical and strategic ABM capabilities). 

  Russian forces currently have approximately 1800 tactical nuclear weapons to include surface to surface rockets, short range ballistic missiles, ground launched cruise missiles, tactical nuclear bombs, nuclear depth bombs, nuclear torpedoes, nuclear armed anti-submarine rockets, surface to air missiles, and air to surface missiles operationally deployed on Russian soil, in Kaliningrad, and on warships in the Northern and Pacific fleets (the US has no nuclear weapons on surface ships).

  What Vladimir Putin has guaranteed is a future re-deployment of US tactical nuclear weapons systems to NATO.

Suggested reading-

"NATO Says Russian Missile Deployment Threatens Arms-Control Efforts" by Ahto Lobjakas, 6 November 2008. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty

https://www.rferl.org/a/NATO_Says_Russian_Missile_Deployment_Threatens_ArmsControl_Efforts/1339015.html

Missile Defense Agency countries, radars, systems, and deployment-

https://mda.mil/system/international_cooperation.html

Background information on BMD systems-

https://missiledefenseadvocacy.org/system_type/intercept-missile-defense/

"Russia’s Nuclear Weapons: Doctrine, Forces, and Modernization" Updated January 2, 2020 by Congressional Research Service. Links to pdf.

https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/6598970/Russia-s-Nuclear-Weapons-Doctrine-Forces-and.pdf