FLASH
Shkruar nga Lewis Page
Trump's goal is undoubtedly to show that he is not afraid of Medvedev, but this is just business as usual...
US President Donald Trump says he has moved two "nuclear submarines to position themselves in the appropriate regions" in response to threats from former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, a close ally of dictator Vladimir Putin.
However, it is an almost completely meaningless gesture. The United States has 14 Ohio-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines: at least two of them would have been ready to strike Russia before the “war” of words between Medvedev and Trump began. Each ship carries up to 24 Trident II missiles, each of which generally carries four nuclear warheads, each powerful enough to gut a city.
For decades, every second of every hour, 24 hours a day, every day of every year, there have been American (and French, and British) submarines ready and in position to destroy Russia. So it wasn't necessary for any of them to move to accomplish this.
In fact, there would be good reasons not to do so, at least in the case of submarines already in place. An interceptor submarine on patrol is trying extremely hard not to be detected: that is the whole point of putting ballistic missiles on submarines, doing so means they are almost impossible to find, and therefore almost impossible to eliminate in a preemptive strike.
A deterrent patrol ship, then, moves through the water very slowly and stealthily. A significant change of location would probably involve speeding up and making it easier to find, which would not be a particularly good idea. The president could, of course, have ordered additional ships to the station: but the ones already on duty would be sufficient. And as commander in chief, Mr. Trump could well claim that he “ordered two nuclear submarines to be deployed” simply in the normal course of business.
Words matter, especially in the context of nuclear Armageddon. Mr Trump’s aim is undoubtedly to show that he is not intimidated by Medvedev’s boasting. But in practice, the action he says he has taken does not change much. /Adapted from The Telegraph/
Lewis Page is a former Royal Navy officer.
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