Russia to Build 6 New Nuclear Submarines

Submarine fire almost triggered biggest accident since Chernobyl

(NEWSER) - When a Russian submarine caught fire in December, officials said its nuclear weapons had been removed long before the fire—but now, Russian navy insiders tell a magazine that wasn't the case. In fact, during the fire, the Yekaterinburg submarine had 16 intercontinental ballistic missiles on board, and each held four nuclear warheads, the navy sources tell Vlast magazine. That means "Russia, for a day, was on the brink of the biggest catastrophe since the time of Chernobyl." More»

(NEWSER) - First, Vladimir Putin shows off his biceps on vacation and now this: Two nuclear-powered Russian subs have been poking around the East Coast of the US, the New York Times reports. It's not clear what they're up to, but the move is a rare one that smacks of the Cold War. “I don’t think they’ve put two first-line nuclear subs off the US coast in about 15 years,” a naval historian tells the Times. More»

Cold War is over, but dangerous machines still stalk the oceans

(NEWSER) - The Cold War is over, and the threats of terrorism and economic collapse have made it easy to forget about the possibility of sudden, total annihilation by nuclear weapons. Until, that is, last week’s collision between French and British nuclear submarines, Clemens Höges writes for Der Spiegel. It's a reminder that 40 ballistic missile subs—including 14 belonging to the US and 15 to Russia—still stalk our oceans, almost undetectable, even to sonar, because they make "less noise than a crab." More»

Cold War fault lines rumble at prelim G-8 summit

(NEWSER) - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US counterpart Condi Rice butted heads during a sit-down with G-8 foreign ministers yesterday, over US plans to grant Kosovo independence and build a missile defense shield in the region. The entire group endorsed freeing Kosovo from Serbian control, the Washington Post reports, except Lavrov. More»

Russian nuclear arsenal can now circumvent defense shields

(NEWSER) - Russia tested a new line of missiles yesterday that the Kremlin claims can penetrate any defense system. Putin took the opportunity to reiterate his warning that the US plan to to deploy an anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic will turn the region into a "powder keg," the AP reports. More»