Putin’s ‘Invincible’ Missile Is Aimed at U.S. Vulnerabilities
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR and DAVID E. SANGERMARCH 1, 2018
MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia threatened the West with a new generation of nuclear weapons Thursday, including what he described as an “invincible” intercontinental cruise missile
and a nuclear torpedo that could outsmart all American defenses.
The new Russian weapons would render such defenses obsolete, Mr. Putin gloated,
and if anyone found a workaround, “our boys will think of something new.”
Other weapons the Russian leader discussed included a ballistic missile called Sarmat
that could round either pole and overcome any defense system; hypersonic nuclear weaponry that fly at 20 times the speed of sound; and unmanned deepwater submarines that could go huge distances at enormous speed.
If Mr. Putin was not bluffing, said Aleksandr M. Golts, an independent Russian
military analyst, then “these weapons are definitely new, absolutely new.”
“If we’re talking about nuclear-armed cruise missiles, that’s a technological breakthrough and a gigantic achievement,” he said in an interview.
I’d certainly want to see more evidence to believe that.”
Mr. Putin said Russia had developed the weaponry because the United States had rejected established arms control treaties
and was deploying new missile defense systems in Europe and Asia.