Washington is afraid that Russia will use nuclear weapons as the US and NATO support its borders by deploying their own missiles.
The American Aegis Ashore missile defence systems are now located in Eastern Europe. A special feature of these systems is that they are also capable of launching projectiles, in particular Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Although the States have long denied this capability, they conducted tests in the summer of 2019. The latest version of the Tomahawk was launched with the Mk-41, which is used in Aegis Ashore. Russia has repeatedly expressed its concern about this fact. Now the Americans have to worry.
“The Russians have made it clear that they are ready to respond with full-scale nuclear weapons if at least one ballistic missile is detected approaching”, – said Christopher Ford, Assistant Secretary of State for International Security.
According to him, the United States “has reason to be afraid”. In this regard, he expressed the hope that the Russian nuclear doctrine meets international standards, as stated in Moscow. At the same time, the official pointed to another problem for the Americans – the Poseidon unmanned submarines.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin announced this development back in March 2018 in his message to the Federal Assembly. The President stressed that such drones would be equipped with both conventional and nuclear warheads.
“They will probably be equipped with nuclear warheads of several megatons to be launched into the ocean during combat”, – Ford suggested. – “That’s how they would launch a radioactive tsunami on American cities along the coast.”