In planning for military development, Russia will take into account US project to modernize nuclear weapons
Russia will factor into their military planning the US decision to start production on a modernized nuclear bomb in 2020, the head of the State Duma Defense Committee and former Black Sea Fleet Commander, Admiral Vladimir Komoedov, told Interfax.
“I think, of course, we will take this into account in military planning,” he said.
On Tuesday, there was news that the US National Nuclear Security Administration has begun preparations for the production of a new modernized nuclear bomb, the B61-12. Production is scheduled for 2020.
The head of the Center for International Security at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations, member of the Russian Academy of Sciences and military expert, Alexei Arbatov, told Interfax on Tuesday that Russia itself performs modernization of its nuclear capabilities. According to him, a new American bomb will not pose a fundamentally new threat to Russia. “Of course, what Americans decided to do is unpleasant for us, our nuclear weapons aimed at each other. Any new system is not joyful for us, but this system will not create a fundamentally new situation,” Arbatov said.
“Russia will pay attention to it but Russia carries out its own program of modernization of nuclear weapons – both strategic and operational-tactical,” Arbatov noted.