Russia is changing the equation. Russia under Putin is transforming MAD which everyone knows as Mutually Assured Destruction to the new offset strategy of MAS -- Mutually Assured Spending.
Putin is reviving weapons platforms both Russia as the USSR and USA examined and tested in the 1950s and 1960s and that each side dismissed as unnecessary, provocative, expensive and apocalyptic. That is, while multiple warheads on a ballistic missile will destroy a city, these torpedoes will destroy a continent. Each side can make 'em. So thanks to Putin and Russia we've come around full circle again.
How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Bomb
And The 100 Megaton Torpedo Too
The 100 megaton nuclear torpedo and related submarine systems are massively expensive. Putin however is committed to sparing no expense. Which is the major military reason Putin needs the lifting of economic sanctions by the US and EU. Given this reality the sanctions aren't ever likely to be eased or removed however. So much for Trump, Michael Flynn et al.
Pentagon has the system in its Nuclear Posture Review where one can read up on it. Pentagon classifies the system as a Russian strategic nuclear weapon program:
“Russia is also developing at least two new intercontinental range systems, a hypersonic glide vehicle, and a new intercontinental, nuclear-armed, nuclear-powered, undersea autonomous torpedo.”
When we get into the seaweed of the Russki system however we find inherent limitations. For instance the specialized sub needs to get close in to the USA coastal areas. Launching it otherwise takes several days to reach US coastal shores. Its deployment is not viable off the Atlantic coast because as a deep diving weapon the sub and torpedoes can't overcome transit from Russia via GIUK gap into the Atlantic due to the depths and geographical choke points involved. So and as Pentagon points out we won't need a 6th Battle of the Atlantic in naval and military terms.
The Pacific coast is more hospitable to it yet the system is both slow and noisy. This is the equivalent to US ASW of the bases loaded double that clears the bases. A walkoff smash in the bottom of the tenth. Can't miss it down there. US will need to develop torpedoes that reach that depth so that's what the US will do. Guaranteed.
Russia has the same problem with its armed forces as Iran has. That is, the conventional forces of each are so full of holes, aged equipment and its personnel so underpaid and poorly trained, each of 'em must go nuclear and in big ways. In Russia the future is now while in Iran the future is asap.
