Putin’s “Show and Tell” Message to Obama

Is Russia building a strategic attack capability that will render the global missile defense system that the US is building obsolete? The television broadcast of President Vladimir Putin’s remarks to a meeting in Sochi on the developing of the armed forces on Nov. 10 seems to have included a visual message exactly to that effect.

A Russian military document was “inadvertently” shown during the broadcast that describes something called “Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6,” that appears to be a submarine-launched drone, capable of traveling at 100 knots at a depth of 3,300 feet, protected by advanced stealth technology, and delivering a nuclear attack on the coastline of an adversary country, over a distance of up to 10,000 km (6,000 miles). The purpose of the system, according to the document, is:

Earlier that same day, Putin had stated to the gathering: “We have said repeatedly that Russia will take the necessary reciprocal measures to strengthen its nuclear potential. We will also work on anti-missile defense systems as well, but on the first stage, as we have repeatedly said, we will focus also on offensive systems capable of overcoming any anti-missile defense systems.” One might reasonably ask: Is “Ocean Multipurpose System: Status-6” of such offensive systems to which Putin was referring?

The “inadvertently” broadcast document has been subjected to a great deal of press attention, both in the West and in the Russian media. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov went to great lengths, afterwards, to say that the document was not supposed to be shown and that Russian officials would take measures to ensure that such an incident would never happen again. The idea that this was somehow a “mistake” committed by some general, however, is laughable. Whatever the case with this specific torpedo, the release of the information was clearly intentional, and meant as the “show and tell” part of Putin’s address to that meeting, where he warned that Russia was preparing capabilities to overcome the US BMD system. As the Daily Telegraph noted: “Some analysts suggest that the ‘accidental’ leak was actually intended to signal that Russia has the means and intention to respond ‘asymmetrically’ by creating devices the new American defenses will not stop.”

The pro-Russian blogger The Saker got to the point quickly, in a blog entry posted Thursday. “[t]his was a deliberate way to remind the USA that if they really are hell-bent on spending billions of dollars in a futile quest to create some kind of anti-missile system, Russia could easily develop a cheap weapon system to still threaten the USA with total annihilation,” he wrote. In fact, he says, the Russian military already has this kind of technology on a smaller scale and is deploying it now to some combat units.

The Saker goes on to say that he believes that there’s no way that Europe can be protected by any US missile defense scheme, and that all the Europeans have done is paint cross hairs on themselves, as these BMD installations will be among the first targets destroyed in any conflict. “But the most likely scenario is that key components of the [U.S.] anti-missile system will suddenly experience ‘inexplicable failures’ which will render the entire system useless,” broadly hinting at electronic warfare and related means. “The Russians know that and so do the Americans. But just to make sure that everybody got the message, the Russians have now shown that even a fully functional and survivable US anti-missile system will not protect anybody from a Russian retaliation.”

Russian military analyst Igor Korotchenko made a similar point in an interview with Sputnik Radio. While “We hope that nuclear weapons will never be used,” he said, this underwater drone which Russia is apparently developing will primarily serve as a deterrent meant to assure a potential enemy that in case of an incoming attack Russia will be able to retaliate. Korotchenko also noted that any reasonable American politician should understand that Washington has to discuss the US missile defense system with Russia. “We have repeatedly raised this issue in talks with our American partners but, sadly, received no response to Russia’s initiatives. This could probably change now,” he concluded.