Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to have renewed his nuclear power against the West by readying a strategic missile that can strike the US or anywhere in Europe, according to Newsweek.
According to the news outlet, which cited the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda, a video of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) on a silo launcher was released by Russia's defence ministry and widely reported by the country's media as an apparent warning to the West.
According to the newspaper, the missile is "12 times more powerful than the American bomb that destroyed Hiroshima," referring to the atomic weapon dropped on the Japanese city on August 6, 1945.
The report in the mass circulation paper outlined some of the missile's specifications, including a launch weight of 46,000 tonnes, an operational range of up to 12,000 kilometres (7,456 miles) that can strike the United States or anywhere in Europe, and a payload of up to 500 kilotons.
"In the run-up to Strategic Missile Force Day, the Kozelsk missile formation carried out the loading of a Yars ICBM into the silo launcher," Russian News Agency TASS quoted the defence ministry as saying.
The complex process took a few hours and was carried out with the help of a special transporter-loader.
"This operation is important because it will allow yet another ICBM to enter combat duty as scheduled," Commander of the Kozelsk missile formation Alexey Sokolov said.
The Yars missile system is a modified version of the Topol-M missile system. Russia began deploying Yars intercontinental ballistic missile systems in 2009, when the Yars launcher was accepted for experimental combat duty in the Strategic Missile Force.
According to Fox News, on December 9, Putin drew international attention when he warned that if even one missile enters Russian territory, "hundreds" of warheads will respond.
"I assure you, after the early warning system receives a signal of a missile attack, hundreds of our missiles are in the air," Putin said from a summit in Kyrgyzstan, Russian news outlet RIA reported. "It is impossible to stop them."
"There will be nothing left of the enemy, because it is impossible to intercept a hundred missiles." "This, of course, is a deterrent-a serious deterrent," he added.
According to Sputnik News, as for the country's nuclear weapons, Russia currently possesses a total of 5,977 nuclear warheads, while only 1,426 are deployed. The country's 513 deployed delivery vehicles, in turn, include an array of state-of-the-art military hardware, such as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), strategic bombers, nuclear-powered submarines, and hypersonic glide vehicles.
