President Donald Trump said on Monday that the US has a nuclear submarine parked somewhere near Russia after Moscow touted the successful test of a new nuclear-powered cruise missile with an unlimited range.
“They know we have a nuclear submarine — the greatest in the world — right off their shores,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One during his ongoing trip to Asia, highlighting the stealthy American boat as a flexible strike option that can hit any target. “It doesn’t have to go 8,000 miles,” he said.
Trump added that Russia is “not playing games with us. We’re not playing games with them either. We test missiles all the time.”
Russian Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Sunday that Moscow conducted a test last week of its nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, which traveled 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles).
Gerasimov said at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that the missile spent 15 hours in the air, but it is said to be capable of flying for longer. He said the Burevestnik missile is capable of bypassing air defense systems, according to state media outlet Tass, which described the weapon as having “unlimited flight range.”
The 9M730 Burevestnik, which NATO identifies as the SSC-X-9 Skyfall, is an experimental nuclear-capable cruise missile. It was one of six “super weapons” unveiled by Putin in 2018 and is powered by a mini nuclear reactor, which, in theory, would give it an unlimited range.
Past tests of the new missile, said to fly low at subsonic speeds, have ended in failure, making the recent test a notable development, though experts have questioned both the weapon’s capabilities and its overall value to the Russian arsenal. Key concerns have been raised about the implications of the weapon for arms control.
“Russia’s nuclear-powered cruise missile (9M730 Burevestnik/SC-X-9 Skyfall) isn’t invincible,” arms control expert Jeffrey Lewis said in a social media post on Monday. “It’s a subsonic (~260 m/s) cruise missile. NATO aircraft could intercept it. The problem is that Burevestnik is yet another step in an arms race that offers no victory for either side.”
Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, insisted on Monday that the Burevestnik test should not further strain already tense relations between the US and Russia.
“We do have a submarine — a nuclear submarine. We don’t need to go 8,000 miles,” Trump said on Monday, adding that Putin should spend more time focused on ending his invasion of Ukraine “instead of testing missiles.”
It’s not the first time Trump has brought up US nuclear submarines in response to Russian discussions of its own arsenal.
In August, Trump said he ordered two US nuclear submarines to take up strategic positions after what he said were provocative comments made by Dmitry Medvedev, Russia’s former president and the current deputy chairman of its security council.
US Navy submarines are highly secretive, and Washington does not typically disclose their location unless it is trying to send a message to adversaries.
All Navy submarines are nuclear-powered, but only ballistic missile submarines, known as SSBNs, are capable of launching nuclear-tipped Trident II missiles. These Ohio-class ballistic missile submarines are regularly on patrol. Trump did not specify the type of submarine he says is positioned near Russia beyond “nuclear submarine.”
The US Navy declined to provide clarity on Trump’s comments.
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