On October 31, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Sergey Shoigu said that those who did not trust President Vladimir Putin in 2018 when he announced the new weapons systems would now be forced to believe. He made the statement when summarizing a meeting of the international festival "Russian Ethnic Groups and the CIS".
Mr. Shoigu stressed that there is no surprise about these new weapons, including the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon underwater vehicle. He reiterated that President Putin had made a public announcement in his speech to the Federation Council since 2018. Some people may not have believed it at the time, but now they will.
Shoigu's comments came shortly after a series of important announcements from Russia's top military leaders. Just two days ago, on October 29, President Putin himself announced that Russia had successfully tested a Poseidon nuclear-powered unmanned underground vehicle. Mr. Putin described the test as "a great success", the first time the nuclear reactor on the vehicle was activated after being launched from a Submarine. He also stressed that Poseidon is significantly more powerful than the advanced Sarmat transcontinental ballistic missile.
On October 21, General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces Valery Gerasimov also reported to the President on the completion of tests on the Burevestnik cruise missile. This is a missile with unlimited range thanks to the use of a nuclear engine. In the test, the missile was said to have flown for about 15 hours and covered a distance of up to 14,000km. These consecutive tests seem to be aimed at confirming the realism of the new-generation weapons systems that Russia has been pursuing for years.
Back in 2018, in his historic Federal message, President Putin announced for the first time six new strategic "super weapons", including Poseidon autonomous Nuclear Tractor and Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missiles.
At that time, many experts and Western governments were deeply skeptical, saying that this was mainly political propaganda or science fiction projects that were not technically feasible. The West believes that Russia will find it difficult to overcome the huge technical challenges, especially the shrinkage of a nuclear reactor to install just on a cruise missile.
Therefore, Mr. Shoigu's latest statement can be considered a final affirmation of Russia. By announcing consecutive successful experiments, Russia is sending a clear message to the West: The weapons that it once considered "unfeasible" have now become a reality, and the West will have to believe and recalculate its security strategies.
