Every time Russian President Vladimir Putin uses the nuclear threat in the context of the Ukraine war, fears arise that Russia, the second world power in this type of weaponry, will use tactical nuclear weapons on the battlefield of his neighboring country. Given the suspension by Moscow of its adherence to the New Start, the last major nuclear arms control pact remaining in force between this country and the United States, and the Russian stalemate on the Ukrainian front, concern is growing again that there is an escalation of the Russian invasion.
They are small atomic bombs with delivery systems intended for use on the battlefield or in a limited attack. They are designed to destroy enemy targets in a specific area without causing a large radioactive discharge.
There is a more or less widespread convention among experts on nuclear weapons is that those included in a power range of less than one kiloton are considered tactical. The kiloton is a unit of mass equivalent to 1000 tons of TNT (trinitrotoluene) and is used, in this case, to describe the destructive capacity of a bomb. The one that fell on Hiroshima had a power of 16 kilotons, while the one that fell on Nagasaki, 21.
Russia and the United States possess the largest number of nuclear warheads of this type. US intelligence estimates that Moscow possesses some 2,000 tactical nuclear weapons. All the other countries that currently have offensive nuclear capabilities also have them (China, France, the United Kingdom, India, Pakistan, Israel, and North Korea).
Warheads can be placed on various types of ballistic missiles that are typically used to deliver conventional bombs. They can even be fired like artillery shells on a battlefield. They are launched from aircraft, ships or submarines and land transport vehicles.
While the danger of Putin resorting to tactical nuclear weapons after suspending adherence to New Start is conventionally alluded to, the fact is that the treaty is intended to limit strategic nuclear warheads, which are weapons of greater range and destruction than first.
The US claims that Russia has recently invested heavily in tactical weapons to improve their range and accuracy. These warheads are believed to be in storage facilities, rather than deployed and ready to fire, although Washington has no way of verifying this.
Putin's decision confirms something that was already underway: the growing obscurantism about the actual nuclear capabilities of a power that often uses the nuclear threat to curb Western support for Ukraine. The treaty authorized US and Russian inspectors to carry out inspections of each other's stockpiles to ensure that both sides were complying with it, although the missions were suspended by the pandemic and never resumed.
