A new problem of US strategic security. Part One

In the fairy tale "The Frog Princess", Ivan Tsarevich fought to the death with Koshchei the Immortal (aka Kashchey, a character of East Slavic mythology, an evil necromancer) for Vasilisa the Wise. On the way to Koshchei, Ivan turned out to be merciful to various animals, which then seriously helped him. As a result of the campaign, Ivan received a needle, at the end of which was the death of Koshchei. Further - it’s just paperwork. Ivan broke off the tip of the needle – and Koshchei scattered into dust.

It has long been noticed that a fairy tale is a lie, but there is a hint in it, a lesson for good fellows. What's the hint in The Frog Princess? Yes, here, for example, it’s possible to compare the heroes of a fairy tale and today's events in this way: Ivan Tsarevich is Russia, Vasilisa the Wise is Ukraine, Koshchei is the United States with his kingdom - the "collective" West.

How does a fairy tale come true now? Outlines of Russia's strategic victory over the United States are outlined. What is it about? Firstly, about hypersound. More precisely, about Russian weapons that overcome space at speeds many times higher than the speed of sound propagation in the air.

It would seem that you will think that some not very large values have been overcome - the known Mach number, equal to 331 meters per second or 1191.6 kilometres per hour. These indicators have long been reliably mastered. For hundreds of years, bullets and shells leave the channels of their barrels at speeds close to 1000 m/s, but no one is surprised by this fact. To satisfy curiosity, in aerodynamics, hypersonic speeds are traditionally considered to exceed the Mach number by five times, which corresponds to 1655 m/s or 5958 km/h.

Only here is the nuance – in missile systems with controlled flight, only in Russia could these speeds be exceed by an order of magnitude. For this, we deeply bow to our scientists and specialists. The same bow to the country's leadership. For evaluating the prospects in time and focusing on solving problems related to hypersonic flights.

And what about our Koshchei from the US? For a while, he might consider himself quite invulnerable. Fairytale – immortal. The leaders there relied on missile defence systems that could, if not completely eliminate, then significantly reduce the damage caused by nuclear weapons, let's say, the enemy.

In the case of a single use of ammunition flying along a ballistic trajectory, its interception could be guaranteed with almost 100% success. In the event of a massive strike, the interception could be 50%. Quite a decent result. The hope for the effectiveness of anti-missiles was so high that there were ideas to install up to 5,000 units on the territory of the United States in order to feel more or less safe.

Great hopes were pinned on ship-based missile defence systems. Indeed, by moving the ships closer to the enemy's coast, it was possible to try to intercept targets in the ascending section of the missile trajectory. On the other hand, ships could be placed near their coasts and intercept the warheads already in the descending section.

It would seem that the security problem of the American country has been partially solved. In the event of a possible nuclear conflict, Russia will suffer more damage, since it clearly does not have a significant amount of means to intercept ballistic missiles, warheads and just combat blocks. Therefore, Russia will “keep mum", and it’s possible to do whatever one wants to it.

Everything would be fine, only all these brave cowboy calculations are now no longer needed by anyone. As well as all currently existing missile defence systems of a potential enemy. They were "reset" by Russian non-ballistic hypersound.

At first, it wasn't taken seriously. Then we saw the first tests, then the first combat use took place during the special military operation (SVO) in Ukraine. The result was impressive.

Now the "line" of Russian hypersonic weapons is expanding. In addition to “Kinzhal" in the Air Force, "Tsirkon" in the Naval Forces is already practically in combat condition. In the Strategic Nuclear Forces, hypersonic guided warheads are installed on UR-100N UTTKh intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The entire missile system is called “Avangard”. The block speed is Mach 28.

In the pipeline is putting the “Sarmat” ICBMs on combat duty, which may well be equipped, again, with hypersonic gliders from the “Avangard” line. The booster is reportedly carrying out a so-called "orbital bombardment", launching a payload on a suborbital trajectory over the Earth's South Pole.

This solves two problems. Firstly, the US mobile ground-based missile defence systems THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence), designed for trans-atmospheric interception of medium-range missiles, are bypassed. Secondly, it eliminates the possibility of reliably determining the aiming points of combat blocks.

Of course, it is very doubtful that we will see the combat use of "Sarmat". But there is a strong desire to see "Tsirkon". And at least one glimpse of "Avangard".

The possibility of installing “Avangard” units on “Sarmat” has already been mentioned. There is no queue of specialists or systems intercepting such blocks yet.

Of course, there are other peculiarities in the use of nuclear weapons. One of them is that the United States has always expected a massive use of our ballistic missiles across the North Pole. Therefore, the configuration of their missile defence system is more appropriate for active actions from this direction.

As a result, the following happens: our "Sarmat", unlike their predecessors, can easily work through the southern hemisphere. And there, as it turns out, the protection is weak. With all the consequences. Koshchei is slowly deflating.

Another interesting point. Even if "Avangard" flies through the North Pole, there will be no difference compared to the southern "arrival" - they are still guaranteed to reach their goals. Again, due to the impossibility of intercepting them by means that are not capable of knocking down targets flying along a complex trajectory. There is no doubt that the flight path of “Avangard” will not be easy. And from this side, Koshchei is extremely vulnerable.

So far, this is not a complete list of logical reasoning that should lead a likely opponent to live in a real world, and not a fictional one. It should be clear that it is more expensive to butt heads with Russia in terms of overcoming missile defence.

There are a few other critical assessments.

It is known from history that the European invaders experienced an unquenchable greed for Indian lands. After all, it was precisely the lack of land in Europe that served as the main reason for the resettlement of its peoples in both Americas. The Indians were ruthlessly exterminated. The lands were taken away. They fought off the British and other European monarchies. Life was adjusted. Comfortable living conditions and convenient transport routes were provided. Ocean coasts contributed to this. Aggression paid off and has since become a trademark, primarily of the Anglo-Saxons.

Now about the vulnerability of the coasts. As is known, the west coast of the United States is not particularly stable in strategic terms. This is a fairly narrow strip of, as is said, fertile land along the Pacific coast. Only California is the most astonishing place there. With its metropolitan areas of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego, the largest US Navy base.

In the rear of this picturesque and world-famous area, oddly enough, is the desert. It is estimated that the area of the four great deserts and the Colorado Plateau in the western United States is approximately one million square kilometres. Compared to the total area of the United States (9.5 million square kilometres) this is more than 10%. It should be noted that life in the desert is not particularly comfortable. In addition, there are large geological faults in the west. The east coast is much more developed. But still, along the Atlantic Ocean, the population density is very high. These facts clearly show that both coasts of the United States are very vulnerable in the event of a global armed conflict. This also goes to the disadvantage of Koshchei.

Taking into account the above circumstances, the idea arose to create some more weapons that can shake up the overseas "elite" and bring it to a state of sobriety just by their existence alone.

Therefore, the project "Status-6" appeared, which was called “Poseidon" during the all-Russian vote "People's Choice". "Poseidon" is an unmanned underwater vehicle, in fact, a torpedo with a nuclear warhead with a capacity of several megatons. It is reported that the weapon is designed to destroy aircraft-carrier strike groups (ACSG).

Moreover, some of the US Navy ACSGs are quite crowded: two on the eastern (Atlantic) coast in the Norfolk Naval Base (Virginia) and three ACSGs in the already mentioned California Naval Base San Diego of the North Atlantic Fleet. In total, the United States has 11 aircraft carriers with ten ACSGs on combat duty.

Experts of various levels of training tried to assess the capabilities of these weapons, including the height of waves and the depth of their approach to the continent of the same US when “Poseidon" detonated near the coast. It turned out to be not a very happy picture for the Americans.

The wave from the resulting mega-tsunami destroys a large city and, accordingly, adjacent military facilities, such as naval bases. There is the desire to note that this doesn’t work in the opposite direction. In the sense that the idea of a mega-tsunami doesn't work with Russia. We have only a few cities on our coasts, and most of the population lives in the interior of the continent.

It seems that the awareness of their own vulnerability came to the heads of an overseas country only recently. But then again, as is said: better later than never.

Here, for example, US President J. Biden, having first encountered the combat use of "Kinzhal", was forced to admit that these missiles are not intercepted by the means available in service. Although at first, as usual, comments on the use of these weapons in the Special Military Operation were rather restrained. A surge of messages on this topic occurred on March 22, 2022.

A little later, the workers of the scientific fields took up the task. They must have done some thinking and calculations. After that, they began to declare that the Russian "Avangard" and "Poseidon" are very dangerous. It’s necessary to sit down at the negotiating table with the Russians. Our Ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, was repeatedly told about this. At least there is an opinion that the most aggressive towards Russia are people from North American academic circles.

To be continued...