Faced with NATO, Vladimir Putin announces the strengthening of the Russian nuclear triad

On February 21, 2022, after the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, announced the suspension of the New Start Treaty, we wrote that this decision paved the way for a future rise in power of the Russian nuclear triad, the latter being today the only asset remaining in the hands of the head of the Kremlin, to justify Russia's superpower status on the scene international community, while its conventional forces have been very severely reduced by a year of war in Ukraine.

It only took two days after this announcement, and despite the skeptical comments of some journalists at the time, for the Russian leader to give substance to this hypothesis. Indeed, speaking within the framework of the day of heroes defenders of the motherland, a traditional holiday in Russia since 1922 celebrating the military and then, over time, law enforcement, security and firefighters , the Russian President announced the upcoming strengthening of the Russian nuclear triad.

To achieve this, Vladimir Putin presented several future measures, such as the upcoming entry into service of new intercontinental ballistic missiles, in this case the RS-28 Sarmat, but also the construction of new nuclear ballistic missile submarines , probably of the Borei-A class, and the reinforcement of the strategic air forces, with the Tu-160M ​​and perhaps the hypothetical arrival of the PAK-DA stealth bomber.

Finally, the development and deployment of new hypersonic missiles, whether airborne like the Kinzhal, or with naval launching or submarines, like the 3M22 Tzirkon, will be intensified. On the other hand, the president specified that the procedures of reciprocal information with the occident concerning the tests of vectors will be maintained.

It should be recalled that in 2018, the Russian military programming law GPV 2018-2027 had already formalized the transition from an initial fleet of 10 nuclear ballistic missile submarines (SSBN) to a fleet of 12 ships, i.e. as many as the United States does not plan to build any new Columbia-class SSBNs.

With this announcement, the Russian President suggests that the format of the Russian strategic fleet will therefore go beyond this number, which will not fail to generate a reaction on the part of Washington which could, due to the suspension of the treaty New Start, decide to compensate not only the Russian fleet in the making, but also the growing Chinese nuclear force and which implements, among other things, a fleet today strong of 6 SSBN Type 09IV, to return to a strategic fleet between 18 and 24 buildings, as the Ohio class was initially to be during the Cold War.

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