In January 2026 Russia was estimated to have 575 deployed strategic launchers with about 1530 nuclear warheads.
Forty years ago, on 15 January 1986, Mikhail Gorbachev announced a plan to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2000. The next day, the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Ministry held a joint briefing, at which Georgy Kornienko (First Deputy...
Getting a good estimate of the status of Russian strategic nuclear forces has become very difficult after Russia suspended the implementation of New START in February 2023. The last data exchange reflected the status of its forces on 1 September...
The earlier post about the status of the space-based segment of the Russian early-warning system got some media attention, which led colleagues to question my conclusion. And they may have a point - it may be a bit early to...
Orbital data suggest that as of the end of 2025 Russia may have only one functioning early-warning satellite of the Tundra type. This is a significant decline from the situation in March 2025, when three satellites of the constellation -...
Oreshnik is an elusive missile. It shows up in various statements and there are some pretty tangible signs of its existence, but it is still not quite clear what the actual status of the missile is. The most notable recent...
Russia appears to have made another attempt to launch a Yars ICBM from Plesetsk. It issued a NOTAM notification with a window opening at 6:00 UTC on 25 December 2025. It probably notified the United States about the upcoming launch:...
In the traditional 17 December interview marking the anniversary of the Strategic Rocket Forces (established on that day in 1959), commander Sergey Karakayev reported that his force completed the deployment of Yars missiles in the silos of the missile division...
In an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda the commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces said that the first regiment of silo-based Yars missiles at the Tatishchevo division began combat duty in 2025. The Tatishchevo division has an interesting history. Yars...
Although the Golden Dome will soon mark its first anniversary, there is still not much clarity on what the system will consist of, what it will be asked to do, or, more importantly, what it will be able to do....
The Knyaz Pozharsky submarine of the Project 955A/Borey-A class was accepted for service in July 2025. The formal acceptance would normally take place in December, but with Knyaz Pozharsky it was postponed for about six months, presumably to complete the...
The book
