Value Collector
Have courage, and be kind.
- Joined
- 13 January 2014
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Yes, As I said there is no nukes pointed at Russia is Romania or Poland, the USA abandoned equipping tomahawks with Nukes 10years ago.Aegis Ashore systems in Romania and Poland are supposed to be "defensive" missile sites loaded with missiles that can intercept ICBMs. They use the Mark 41 Vertical Launching System (Mk 41 VLS) that are used on nuclear subs and destroyers
Aegis Ashore | Missile Threat
Aegis Ashore is the land-based variant of the Navy’s Aegis Weapons System and the centerpiece of Phases II and III of the European Phased Adaptive Approach (EPAA). The system incorporates land-based versions of the various components used on Aegis ships, including the deckhouse, AN/SPY-1 radar...missilethreat.csis.org
However, they are also fully capable of launching Tomahawk missiles which can be loaded with nuclear warheads.
Tomahawk (missile family) - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
If you had been following the Russian troop buildup in Feb before the invasion you would have come across this article
Bloomberg - Are you a robot?
www.bloomberg.com
AFAIK after the Cuban missile crisis in the 1960s, USA had decommisioned all nuclear missles in Turkey. Currently there are no nuclear missiles directly pointed at Russia from Europe.
Hence this is a sticking point for Russia as its the closest nuclear response NATO has, they can just swap some tomahawks with armed warheads into the Aegis launch system and away they go into Russian Cities. Of course NATO can still fly bombers, use their ship/submarine based tomahawks to nuke Russia, but those are not as quick or easy as pressing a button at those launch sites.
At the same time Russia does not have any direct nuclear response capability as they have already withdrawn from Cuba, even had to send their nuke capable bombers back to Russia.
The reason Russia is upset with the defensive systems is not because they can be reloaded with nukes, but because they may counter act a Russian attack, so it weakens russias position.
It’s a bit like having a hostile neighbour armed with a pistol, that becomes peaceful because they know you also have a pistol. If you see that neighbour putting on a bullet proof vest and helmet, the peace is at risk because now one sides pistol might be less effective.
Nukes can be fired from all sorts of equipment, they can even be fired from Artillery, so I don’t know why Russia would be particularly scared of the defence system, except for the fact it reduces their power to attack.
