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Friday, October 21, 2016

Nuclear security

Russia worried less powerful US nuke will be ‘more tempting’ to use


A long-rage ground-based missile silo, Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. © Kacper Pempel
Russia says the global security situation could change after the US National Nuclear Security Administration decided to upgrade its B61 nuclear weapon. Moscow also fears that as the new bomb will be less powerful, there could be greater temptation to use it.

The decision by the US National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) authorized the program to enter a post-engineering phase, which comes after four years of work. This now means the first upgraded bombs are set to roll out by 2020.

However, this has worried both the Russian Foreign Ministry and arms experts, who believe the move could change the global security situation.

“We were discussing this as soon as the plans appeared about creating something that according to the information that has been made publically available has greater precision, but is not as powerful as other existing weapons within the US arsenal,” said the deputy head of the foreign ministry Sergey Ryabkov, as cited by RIA Novosti.

“This means that the armaments threshold could in theory have been lowered, which of course will destabilize the situation to a certain extent,” Ryabkov added.

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