Well damn, so much for the unmaintained nukes theory
this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2024
236 points (98.4% liked)
World News
39385 readers
2266 users here now
A community for discussing events around the World
Rules:
-
Rule 1: posts have the following requirements:
- Post news articles only
- Video links are NOT articles and will be removed.
- Title must match the article headline
- Not United States Internal News
- Recent (Past 30 Days)
- Screenshots/links to other social media sites (Twitter/X/Facebook/Youtube/reddit, etc.) are explicitly forbidden, as are link shorteners.
-
Rule 2: Do not copy the entire article into your post. The key points in 1-2 paragraphs is allowed (even encouraged!), but large segments of articles posted in the body will result in the post being removed. If you have to stop and think "Is this fair use?", it probably isn't. Archive links, especially the ones created on link submission, are absolutely allowed but those that avoid paywalls are not.
-
Rule 3: Opinions articles, or Articles based on misinformation/propaganda may be removed. Sources that have a Low or Very Low factual reporting rating or MBFC Credibility Rating may be removed.
-
Rule 4: Posts or comments that are homophobic, transphobic, racist, sexist, anti-religious, or ableist will be removed. “Ironic” prejudice is just prejudiced.
-
Posts and comments must abide by the lemmy.world terms of service UPDATED AS OF 10/19
-
Rule 5: Keep it civil. It's OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It's NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban.
Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.
-
Rule 6: Memes, spam, other low effort posting, reposts, misinformation, advocating violence, off-topic, trolling, offensive, regarding the moderators or meta in content may be removed at any time.
-
Rule 7: We didn't USED to need a rule about how many posts one could make in a day, then someone posted NINETEEN articles in a single day. Not comments, FULL ARTICLES. If you're posting more than say, 10 or so, consider going outside and touching grass. We reserve the right to limit over-posting so a single user does not dominate the front page.
We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.
All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.
Lemmy World Partners
News [email protected]
Politics [email protected]
World Politics [email protected]
Recommendations
For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/
- Consider including the article’s mediabiasfactcheck.com/ link
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Not convinced by this story. The guy allegedly worked in security on the base, so probably does not know anything about maintenance needed to keep the warheads operational. I also doubt western security services would let this guy speak to the BBC.
You think there's a guy?
The guy allegedly worked in security on the base,
Nothing to keep security over if the nukes aren't functional/maintained.
I find this theory so absurd, i am quite sure it comes out of some psyops organization. The main thing that resembled some of Russias former glory as SU was their nuclear arsenal. And believing they would let all of it go unmaintained to the point that no relevant amount of nukes would remain working is just nonsensical. Hanging on to that arsenal must have been one of Russias top strategic priorities.
It's really not, brain drain, collapse of the ussr, cost to maintain, etc. all of this is why many in the west believe that the stockpile is in ruin. The kursk sunk because they didnt maintain basic torpedoes, what makes you think they have the knowledge/money to do that with nukes. Russia has clearly shown it's a paper tiger.
With which knowledge did they build their nuclear arsenal?
Do you think all the scientists and soldiers just evaporated in 1990?
Even if the nukes are unusable and Russia is bluffing... I'd not be too keen to call the bluff. You just have to assume they are not.
Is it?
The oligarchs has stripped the military of everything they could, replacing armor with paper crap and the such.
Now take nukes, which are notoriously finicky and require a boatload of maintenance to remain explodable, if that is a word... If ever used, it's the end of the world, and it won't matter anymore.
So here you got weaponry you can quite easily siphon millions out of and basically no one will find out, or no one will be left to care.
Do you really think they did their best on those?
We’re also talking about a military that had an endemic of soldiers getting sick and going blind because they simply would not stop drinking the rocket fuel. Their flagship carrier is basically a littoral ship because that’s all it can do without catching fire. I assume they still have some silos with missiles that could launch and make for a decent dirty bomb but primed and functional warheads…unlikely
When you, a corrupt general, get your annual $10 millions to take care of 50 nuclear warheads, that will never ever be used, what will you do?
The care of the warheads is typically done by some central organization, rather than every individual missile base. Its really specialized work, and it doesn't make sense to have teams capable of performing it at every base.
It was just a metaphor for corruption, you are right but the corruption could take place in the centralised organisation, everything is centralised in russia.
psyops
I guess we’ll find out if/when he dies mysteriously.
I'm sure that officer knows the maintenance situation everywhere in Russia since Soviet times.
Because only 1500 of the 1700 nukes working would make such a big difference.
Because only 1500 of the 1700 nukes working would make such a big difference.
Or 10 of the 1700... Doesn't matter how many, you have to think of it as xxx amount of the top populated cities. The top 10 populated cities will automatically decimate the population of many countries.
I think it's pretty safe to say that they likely don't have ALL their warheads in functional order... but even if it's just 2% of them... it's enough to fuck over several countries for a long time.
There is difference between working and working according to specs. Nukes are very sensitive maintenance heavy and expensive to upkeep. Optimal yeld is easily lost and if exact timing is off, no boom. Wet fissile fasts don't level cities.
But true, even single nuke is a tragedy, even if it ends up being a non-functional dirty bomb.
Russia has thousands of nukes in its arsenal, and this is one person in one base.
Even the US doesn't have all its nukes well maintained, which is why they've been overhauling them for years.
Personally I never subscribed to the "Russia has 0 nukes ready to go" theory because that's just downright idiotic. Bare minimum you keep one well maintained so at the very least you can target whoever targeted you and try to hit their capital with a MIRV.
Since no country really has a problem with taking what it wants from the people, it stands to reason that Russia would just squeeze its population a little tighter to keep as many nukes operational as possible.
However, with that said I also don't doubt a large percentage of it's nuclear arsenal is basically useless.
And anyone who knows anything about nukes can tell you it doesn't matter if they have 10 or 1000, they could still kick off the nuclear apocalypse
I get they blurred his face, but I don't see what that second image really offers anyone other than a way for Russia to narrow down the search of the leak. If I was that guy I'd be pissed at any picture being leaked
Pretty sure there have not been many deserters holding such niche position. His identity already should be known.
His story is pretty unique and he's already on their hunted list. The pic makes absolutely no difference
"Go leak this info to some western press, comrade" - Putin
Good thing is that we are gonna find out the truth in a year or so if this dude is still alive
Rubbish. The security people wouldn't have clearance to know much about what they are guarding, let alone the rest of the countries capabilities. He would know they were put on alert. That's about it. His statement about maintaining it every minute reeks of trying to make his information more valuable so he is better taken care of by whoever he escaped to. Noone would build a weapon that requires that much maintenance. And if they were doing that much maintenance they might be spit polishing the exterior for all he would know. I call BS
It's a nice, even heartwarming story. It does feel a bit like that tv presenter protesting at the beginning, though.