The Pentagon is freaking out after discovering this dreadful threat
Our military has been weakened for years thanks to Biden. Now they’re going head to head with the unknown.
And the Pentagon is freaking out after discovering this dreadful threat.
Three weeks ago, a Russian flotilla of warships, including a nuclear-powered submarine, operated less than 30 miles off the coast of Key Largo, Florida, a development that the Pentagon dismissed as posing “no threat.”
The Russian naval action group – consisting of the missile frigate Admiral Gorshkov, the nuclear-powered cruise missile submarine Kazan, the oil tanker Pashin, and the salvage tug Nikolai Chiker – was carrying out “combat service” tasks, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The Kazan, a Yasen-M-class guided missile submarine, carried guided missiles with a range of 1,000 nautical miles. Admiral Gorshkov is capable of executing long-range strikes and conducting anti-submarine warfare.
These naval assets, which field a variety of anti-ship and land attack weapons, were testing anti-ship missiles in the Atlantic against targets at a range of more than 350 miles. Both vessels are capable of carrying the 1,000-mile range 3M-54 Kalibir NK land attack cruise missile, the P-800 Oniks anti-ship missile, and the 3M-22 Zircon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missiles.
The Zircon (3M22 Tsirkon in Russian or SS-N-3 as NATO designation) is a scramjet-powered hypersonic missile with a range of 1,000 km (625 miles) and travels at nine times the speed of sound.
Developed on Putin’s orders, Zircon is designed to overcome U.S. missile defenses. Its hypersonic speed and ability to fly at low altitude and maneuver in flight make it extremely difficult to detect by missile warning systems.
The inability of current U.S. and Western systems to intercept hypersonic missiles like Zircon presents a serious threat.
Moreover, the United States has no similar capability. Russia and China are far ahead in the field of hypersonics.
Another aspect of the threat is that Russia has the world’s quietest submarines, which are not always spotted by U.S. systems. In 2012, a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine, an Akula-class (shark in Russian), operated close to U.S. shores in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks.
Armed with long-range cruise missiles, the Akula sailed undetected until after it left the region. This patrol by a Russian combat vessel, close to U.S. shores, exposed deficiencies in U.S. anti-submarine warfare capabilities and doctrine, sparking grave concerns from the U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command.
Anti-submarine warfare is integral to Russia’s war-fighting strategy, which seeks to deter the United States from intervening in conflicts such as Ukraine. Destroying submarine undersea cables, which carry global internet traffic, is a primary mission of Russia’s undersea warfare assets.
If digital communications are disrupted, it would affect every aspect of daily life, from banking and finance to transportation, healthcare, and emergency services.
Russia has already conducted proof of concept operations in Europe. In 2022, Russia crippled one of two undersea fiberoptic cables that provide vital communications links between mainland Norway and the Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic Ocean. Russian submarines were active close to cables linking the United States and Europe at the time.
Not all U.S. officials are as nonchalant as the Pentagon about Russia’s growing capability to hold the homeland at risk. Last year, U.S. Northern Command Gen. Glen VanHerck called the deployment of cruise-missile submarines off the coast of the U.S. a “growing concern for homeland defense.”
In 2022, VanHerck said about Russia (and China), “They’ve developed capabilities below the nuclear threshold, to hold us at risk with the idea that they can delay, disrupt our force flow or destroy our will, so that we don’t project power into a regional crisis or a regional conflict.” During the same briefing, Lt. Gen. David Deptula, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), said, “We used to think of our homeland as a sanctuary. Well, that’s no longer the case.” Indeed, Russia possesses today the capability to strike any U.S. target from stand-off distances, without entering U.S. sovereign airspace or territorial waters.
It is important to differentiate between the capability and the intent to use it. Putin has no plans to target the U.S. homeland with strategic assets, such as Zircon, which are reserved for wartime.
However, Russia already believes it is at war with the U.S. in a proxy conflict over Ukraine, which Moscow views as part of its strategic security perimeter. Putin would likely take extreme measures, including going to war with the U.S. and crossing the nuclear threshold, to enforce his version of the Monroe Doctrine.
Predisposed to worst-case scenario thinking, Russia is operationalizing the “hold U.S. homeland at risk” doctrine. Moscow deploys naval and long-range aviation assets close to U.S. borders, simulating strikes on U.S. targets.
Putin is preparing for a full-blown U.S.-Russia war, which the Russian general staff assesses as inevitable. Moscow interprets every U.S. action in the war in Ukraine through this prism. The Biden administration’s recent authorization for Ukraine to use U.S. weapons for striking deep into Russia escalates this risk significantly.
The Biden administration, blinded by animosity toward Putin, is unwilling to engage with the Kremlin. The Kremlin, in turn, does not view Biden as being in charge or having the authority to make deals.
In the meantime, Putin has a plan on how to fight and win a war with the United States. The Pentagon has not developed a comparable capability, such as hypersonics, despite billions of U.S. taxpayers’ funds allocated annually.
Instead, resources are being diverted to the war in Ukraine and to support Israel and NATO allies. This has left the homeland vulnerable, with strategic capabilities that reduce the decision space for a U.S. president in a time of crisis to dangerously low levels. Security for America starts with electing competent decision-makers.
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