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Well I guess we should be giving Ukraine some ICBM's next. Or would that not be fair? :')
Seems like a bit of a waste to launch an intercontinental missile at a country next door, on the same continent. Isn't Russia supposed to have plenty of short and mid range ballistic missiles? I guess they must be running low.
I was under the impression that ICBMs weren't all that great for conventional warheads. Their payload capacity isn't enormous and their accuracy tends to be relatively low- which matters not a jot if you're firing nukes (which do a lot of bang per kilo, and where a few hundred metres either way isn't likely to be critical), but not so great for dropping normal munitions.
I suspect the use of an RS-26 was meant to serve as a provocation/response to the recent ATACMs strikes.
Launching just one sounds like the primary purpose is for messaging, not taking out whatever single target. They want to remind Europeans that they aren't safe just because they live far away. The west has been getting numb to the constant threats of using nuclear weapons. I believe this launch is to give those threats more weight again.
The US will no longer be a threat to Russian ambitions come January. Expect an urgent fear campaign to get the rest of NATO to no longer want to stick their necks out for Ukraine.
Nah, we're not numb. But the fact of the matter is, we can't change anything and letting him win is not going to work, because what's the alternative? Being subjugated or attacked at a later state?
Putin should not forget however, that "we", the EU, also have Nukes and will retaliate, if push comes to shove. Those threats are meaningless either way.
This missile is only "Intercontinental" if you launch it from the edge of a continent. It's got about 6000km of range, which is a lot, but these are obviously meant for use in Europe. They were probably thinking of London and Paris when designing them though.
So this is confirmation then that the storm shadow strike hit someone important?
Maybe they just ran out of any other missiles.
How do we know this is the first and not just the first successful launch?
Afaik, ICBMs are trackibly loud. It's difficult to fire one without everyone noticing immediately
But are failed launches trackable? My point is that this may not be the first attempt. If their missile systems are anything like everything else in their arsenal, a successful launch is a one off exception.
A failed launch, as in an initially successful launch that went wrong in the air, can afterwards be spotted even on commercial satellite images: https://arstechnica.com/space/2024/09/satellite-images-suggest-test-of-russian-super-weapon-failed-spectacularly/ The usa and nato probably know long before those amateur spotters do.
If the rocket fails to launch at all when the button is pressed, then noone will be allowed to know probably. It could be that they tried to launch 10 and only 1 ignited, or maybe there was just the one. Russia isn't going to tell the truth about anything so it's anyone's guess. If it fails to ignite, then I'd expect them to just pack up the rocket again and continue to pretend doing maintenance and have soldiers guarding the stuff.
They probably are afterwards. Most sat pics trained on that have some kind of image recognition stuff running in the background and they flag that. Apparently that's how that Satan failure was also firstly detected
Edit: I also wouldn't be so sure about the ICBMs being in the same state as everything else.
I’m curious how the allies know an ICBM isn’t a nuke
Until it explodes, you don't.
You don't, which why (aside from cost) nations don't use them as toys.
You wait till it explodes and check the NDDS.
Dyatlov: What does the dosimeter say?
Akimov: 3.6 roentgen. But that's as high as the meter...
Dyatlov: 3.6 - not great, not terrible.
Intressting. So by delivering more of them to Ukraine we lower Russias arsenal.
Ukraine has not received ICBMs, articles stating Ukraine has received long range missiles are wrong, Ukraine has only received SHORT ranged missiles. up to 300 miles. It's longer range than artillery, but not long range missiles. Long range missiles have several thousand miles range.
Obviously. ICBMs are pretty much useless to Ukraine and without nukes to Russia as well. They are acurate enough to destroy something using a nuke. So missing by a few hundret meters is fine. With conventional explosive that is however pretty much useless.
This is most likely the answer for Biden allowing the use of those short range system and it would be wonderfull to see Russia blow up its nuclear missiles for nothing.