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Originally Posted by Raellus
Exactly, so why use a strategic asset like ICBMs to do job for which capable operational-level platforms already exist?
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They only have a range of 100-500 km.
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Originally Posted by Raellus
As soon as U.S./NATO member spy satellites detect the launch signature of a Russian ICBM, it's game over. We know where nearly all of their fixed launch sites are and we're still watching. We'll be compelled to launch a nuclear counterstrike. It would take an incredible- some would say, suicidal- degree of self restraint not to. "There may or may not be a nuclear weapon or three on the way towards us and/or our allies but let's wait and see before responding." AFAIK, that would go against Cold War nuclear warfare protocols.
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What about the mobile ICBM launchers and SLBM's from submarines? These days Putin doesn't need the hotline between the White House and the Kremlin to contact Obama and let him know his intensions. He could use E-mail, text message, Skype! But seriously if NATO attacked Russia then the gloves would be off wouldn't they as Russia has every right to retaliate. So what about the mobile ICBM launchers and SLBM's from submarines?
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Originally Posted by Raellus
Yes, conventional-armed ICBMs are an asset that Putin has at his disposal, but he'd have to be daft to use it in the capacity that you are describing, especially, as you just pointed out, since he has alternative platforms which can serve the same purpose (i.e. deliver conventional warheads on targets in East & Central Europe.)
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What about targets he wants to hit in Western Europe and North America?
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Originally Posted by Raellus
Also, can an ICBM designed and built to hit targets a continent away even be reconfigured to hit much closer targets? I would think not- that's why SRBMs and MRBMs exist, right?
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On 4 March 2014 Russia test fired an RS-12M Topol (SS-25) Intercontinental Ballistic Missile from Kapustin Yar testing ground near the Caspian Sea, successfully hitting its target at a test ground in Kazakhstan. Although the United States had received advanced notice about the test it had coincided with the crisis in the Ukraine. The SS-25 has an intercontinental range of 10,500 km, but the distance the test missile (non-nuclear) travelled roughly corresponds to the distance from Western Russia to Western European countries such as Britain and France.
And what about targets in North America?