Russian state television has “accidentally” revealed “secret” plans for a new submarine-fired nuclear torpedo in a move sceptics believe was deliberately choreographed to unnerve the West.
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The images were quickly removed by Russia’s state owned broadcasters, apparently after censors intervened, but not before they were broadcast across the country and picked up by sharp-eyed YouTube users.
A spokesman for Putin, Dmitry Peskov, said: “It’s true that a few secret information was caught by the camera and therefore it was subsequently removed”.
“We hope that this will not happen again”. According to Russian media reports cited by the BBC, the torpedo can travel at 100 knots (185km/h; 115mph) avoiding all “acoustic tracking devices and other traps”.
The torpedo’s range could be as much as 10,000 km (6,200 miles), according to the document.
The weapon, if genuine, would appear to be part of a move to modernise Russia’s nuclear deterrent.
Mr explained Russian Federation would continue developing tactical offensive systems effective at penetrating any anti-missile defence.
Another United States plan now exercising Russian fears is something called Prompt Global Strike – a project that would allow USA forces to deliver a conventional air strike anywhere on the planet with one hour’s notice.
The government daily Rossiyskaya Gazeta alleged that in order to achieve the stated objective of “extensive radioactive contamination” of coastal areas, the project could envisage using the so-called cobalt bomb, a nuclear weapon created to produce enhanced amounts of radioactive fallout compared to a regular atomic warhead. So the leak may not have been accidental. A few observers, however, saw it as a deliberate leak.
Rossiskaya Gazeta also hinted it may well be intended purely as a deterrent.
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A cobalt bomb hasn’t been examined due to the radiation that was crushing it’d unleash.
