1mo ago

Ukraine says Russia launched an intercontinental missile [non nuclear] in an attack for the first time in the war

apnews.com Putin says Russia attacked Ukraine with a new missile that he claims the West can't stop

Russian President Vladimir Putin says Moscow has tested a new intermediate-range missile in a strike on Ukraine and that it could use the weapon against countries that have allowed Kyiv to use their missiles to strike Russia.

49 comments

So we're at the point where it's necessary to clarify missiles aren't nuclear? Great
looks at doomsday clock
- Well yes we do, ICBMs are generally associated with nukes because their sheer cost normally makes them impractical for standard explosive payloads.
  
  If it even is an ICBM. Ukraine says it's an ICBM, and they're 90% confident about that. The US thinks it's an IRBM, which given the range involved, would make more sense. If it's an ICBM, then Russia did it just out of spite.
- “Not even in the face of Armageddon. Never compromise.”

Why though? A warning to the west?
Cause last time I checked, Russia and Ukraine are on the same continent, making this a huge waste.
- Probably a warning in response to letting Ukraine use western missiles deep into russian territory.
  
  “deep into russian territory” is quite an exaggeration. Biden only okayed it for the Kursk and neighbouring regions.
  The U.S. official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly about the decision, said the U.S. is allowing Ukraine to use the weapons to target in and around Kursk — the same region where some 10,000 North Korean troops were recently deployed, according to the U.S. and its allies.
  Source: NPR
- Cause last time I checked, Russia and Ukraine are on the same continen
  The RS-26 only has around 6000km range and was developed for striking Europe.
- 🤓 Russia is in two continents
  
  that still doesn't explain using an icbm against a nation you share a border with. there's some message russia is sending. it's either "don't forget, we have icbms and they're operational" or it's "we are running low on standard missiles and have to fight weird"
  
  Funnily enough, it is not according to Russia. The definition of "continent" is almost completely arbritrary anyway, and exactly where you draw the line between Europe and Asia - or if you draw it at all - is probably the fuzziest bit of all. Russia and many other countries just consider Eurasia to be one continent
  
  Yeah but no one lives in the part on the other continent.

The report is true. The landings were recorded on CCTV.
https://x.com/NOELreports/status/1859535662539526551
It was even expected. A few days ago, Ukrainian intelligence informed the public that a non-standard missile attack was likely coming. They had seen launch preparations in Astrakhan and speculated that a liquid-fuel ICBM would be launched with multiple hypersonic glide vehicles.
Apparently, multiple shots of something considerably more dumb - what seems like six ICBMs with dummy warheads (alternatively a single missile with six warheads, each with six penetration aids) - rained down on Dnipro. It seems that air defense didn't even fire, no chance of intercepting and what's the point.
I guess this must be Putin's language for "don't poke our command centers" (Ukrainians recently attacked the command center of Russia's army group north). I guess Ukrainians can decipher what he means and won't torch the Kremlin, but will keep poking command centers.

Was it non nuclear or do none of their nukes work?
- While i appreciate the whish that Russian nukes don't work, it would be exceptional for none of their 10.000 or so to work. Even if only 1 in 1.000 work, that is still enough to annihilate some 10-20 million people or so.
  
  Back at the beginning of the arms race, the US believed Russian propaganda that they had significantly more nukes than the US was capable of producing.
  By the time the US had around 4000 nukes, later intelligence revealed Russia had 4. The US decided to maintain the policy of the arms race as it was very beneficial to the defense industry and research.
  The cost to develop and maintain a working thermonuclear weapon is enormous, let alone fission bombs. Russia never had the resources to maintain an arsenal the West isn't capable of intercepting. You may recall the "Iron Dome" missile defence system that was removed from Europe.
  The rocket platforms are expensive enough. The nuclear material requires time, maintenance, and a fuck load of power to produce.
  I get the fear. China can do it, they have all the resources and knowledge to. Same with India.
  Facts of nukes help: Tritium has a halflife of 12.3 years. Meaning after 12.3 years, the amount of tritium in a nuke is half. the 500lbs of tritium in the 60s is now 35lbs today. Obviously I dont know how much is needed to make a nuke, but it's not easy to concentrate tritium well. The most effective way is replacing control rods in nuclear reactors with lithium rods. But that's not the real issue. That's relatively minor.
  The problem is weapons grade uranium or plutonium. You need to enrich those to very high % of U-235 to get a big enough blast to trigger the fusion reaction. To do that, enormous, power intensive centrifuge facilities are required. And it takes a long time to produce enough for a fission bomb.
  Given that Putin operates on wealth, and the shit state of the Russian military? They didn't maintain any operational nukes after the Soviet Union fell.
  
  It was a joke.
- How insane would that be? A nuke that fails to go off and they were like: just kidddding.
  
  A fizzle yield would still destroy a few city blocks and spread radiation around. It turns an expensive, proper nuclear bomb into a large dirty bomb.

Non Xwitter Video link
- It’s sad that to avoid twitter, owned by a far right billionaire, the alternative is the telegraph, owned by rupert murdoch, a far right billionaire.
  
  I look forward to the link to your PeerTube instance.

Excellent times to rewatch Threads (1984)

Don't they know it's right next to it?

49 comments