Russia has developed tactical nuclear munitions for its S-400, Buk-M3 air defense systems and A-135 Amur. This is written by the Ukrainian website mil.in.ua, citing the Russian magazine Atom. Atom is a magazine published by the Russian Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov.
As mil.in.ua writes, the article is from 2016, but it is only now becoming known. According to the authors in Atom, Russia has carried out the development of a tactical nuclear weapon. They are intended for three complexes, but no mention is made of which ones they are. The Ukrainians assume that two of them are the S-400 air defense missile system and the Buk-M3 mobile air defense system. The third most likely is the A-135 Amur.
The topic of nuclear air defense munitions is mentioned in an article that tells about the largest research and development unit of the Russian Federal Nuclear Center – KB-2.
Buk-M3
The possibility that the Buk-M3, in particular, is one of the systems that will use tactical nuclear munitions is great. This system was put into operation in the Russian army precisely in 2016. It is entirely possible that some of the tests coincided with tests of tactical nuclear munitions.
The Buk-M3 can fire at air, sea, and land targets. This makes it quite flexible and multifunctional. This is the other reason to assume that the functionality of the Buk-M3 allows the use of nuclear warheads.
A-135 Amur
The third system for which the use of tactical nuclear munitions is assumed is the A-135 Amur. Unlike the Buk-M3 and S-400, the A-135 Amur has a long-range missile interceptor called the 51T6 Azov. 51T6 Azov is also equipped with nuclear warheads.
51T6 Azov was created at the end of the 80s of the last century. In 1995, it entered service with the Russian missile forces. It is an anti-ballistic missile system. Very little is said about it, but it is a fact that at least six such systems are located in the Moscow region alone.
The maximum operating range of the system is 900 km. The missile flies at a speed of Mach 7 [8,600 km/h; 5,300 mph; 2.4 km/s]. The missile can be fired from a silo or launcher.
Russian nuclear weapons inspection
We recall that on August 8, Russia notified the US that it was temporarily waiving inspections of its nuclear weapons under the bilateral Strategic Nuclear Arms Reduction Treaty.
