The Russian military has conducted an airborne forces exercise that simulated the use of tactical nuclear weapons to defend the Russian mainland from attack, according to the weekly Internet-based intelligence digest Geostrategy-Direct.com.
The digest, which quoted U.S. intelligence officials, said the exercises were described as a “command post” activity, designed to test whether paratroops were prepared to defend against an attack from combined NATO forces.
“The officials said the exercise was similar to other recent military war games in that Russian forces quickly were forced to resort to the use of nuclear forces against the invading armies,” the digest reported.
Moscow has had a difficult time funding its military for most of the past decade, U.S. intelligence and political officials have said, leading the Russian military to rely more heavily on its nuclear force for deterrence – especially tactical nuclear weapons, GeoStrategy-Direct reported.
U.S. intelligence analysts are unsure as to how many tactical nuclear weapons Russia is known to possess because these nukes have never been included in any U.S.-Russian arms-control agreements or negotiations, the digest said.
However, U.S. military analysts believe Moscow may possess in the neighborhood of 4,000-10,000 tactical, low-yield nuclear warheads, which include artillery shells, torpedoes, air-dropped bombs and short-range ballistic missiles.
Also, last winter, U.S. intelligence agencies picked up the transfer of tactical nuclear weapons from Russia to a military base in the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad.
In May, a group of U.S. inspectors arrived in Kaliningrad to see if the weapons had been moved to the base by Moscow, which denied the weapons were transferred.
U.S. reports by The Washington Times and United Press International said satellite imagery showed the weapons moving by ship and rail to the area. American officials said they were not able to distinguish the type of weapons being deployed but speculated they were tactical battlefield weapons.
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