The Biden administration is urging U.S. citizens in Belarus to depart the country immediately and warned against travel there in a statement published Monday.
The updated travel warning comes after bordering countries Lithuania, Latvia and Poland have stepped up security along the border over concerns about Russian Wagner mercenary forces exiled in the country.
The State Department, in its warning, encouraged Americans still in Belarus to depart the country immediately and categorized the country as a Level 4 risk, the highest security warning.
America knows that Russian nuclear silos are in as poor a state as American nuclear silos, if not worse. Like in the US where only one wrench is shared between multiple silos and they ship it back and forth. Working in a silo is a dead end gig.
The problem with weapons you never intend to use is that you stop giving a shit about their maintenance, or just steal their budget for something else/yourself. Sub launched nukes are the real threat at this stage, of which there are far fewer.
As an example: https://time.com/6212698/nuclear-missiles-icbm-triad-upgrade/
Isn’t most of the US nuclear arsenal on subs? I mean we have 14 SSBN Ohio class subs each of which has 20 Trident II missiles each of which can have up to 12 100kt warheads. Thats up to potentially 3,360 100kt nuclear warheads ready to be lauched at a moments notice. If that isn’t enough to get the job done then I don’t think a few silos are going to make much of a difference.
Those have been in service for 30-40 years apiece at this stage, and only a portion of those will be at sea at any given time. Still a terrifying amount of destructive power to be sure though, for whatever “the job” turns out to be in the end.
Silos are still deemed a critical part of the nuclear triad, along with air and sea.
the US has 400 nuclear missile silos
You realize that Russia also has the latest gen. of mobile launchers, right? Google Topol-M.
There are only about 18 active Topol-M vehicles in a state of service, it’s the newer Yars launchers you have to worry about now! But likewise, there are an estimated 150 manufactured, in some form of service, unknown levels of readiness. The Russian military has been embezzling swathes of its budget at all levels, I wouldn’t be confident that this too isn’t also at a poor state of readiness.
China is the one making all new investments in a huge nuclear capability, they’re the ones to watch really.