Norway Reports: Russian Warships
Armed With Nuclear Weapons Deployed

Jon Jackson / Newsweek

(February 14, 2023) — Warships in the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet have been deployed with tactical nuclear weapons, the Norwegian Intelligence Service said in a report released Monday.

The intelligence agency noted the presence of the weapons on the vessels in its annual report. It is believed that this is the first time in 30 years the fleet has gone to sea with the nuclear weapons on board.

“A central part of the nuclear capabilities is located on the North Fleet’s submarines and surface vessels,” the report said.

Norway’s intelligence went on to describe the “particularly serious threat” that Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons pose to NATO countries.

“In addition, Russia has, among other things, underwater capabilities, anti-satellite weapons and cyber tools that can threaten Norway and NATO,” the report said.

The Soviet Union’s Northern Fleet warships often went to sea equipped with nuclear weapons during the Cold War, Politico reported. But the latest development reportedly marks the first time the Russian Federation has deployed the ships with nuclear weapons.

Norway’s report also detailed the increased importance of nuclear weapons for Russia now that the nation’s defense budget is set to increase by 34 percent in 2023.

“With weakened conventional capability, the importance of nuclear weapons for Russia has increased significantly,” the report said. “The Russian strategic and regional deterrent forces have thus become increasingly important for the Russian military power.”

The agency’s assessment concluded that Russia will continue to maintain and further develop its nuclear arsenal in the coming years.

Alhough Russian President Vladimir Putin has mostly avoided direct talk of using nuclear weapons during Russia’s war in Ukraine, which will reach the one-year mark on February 24, Kremlin officials like Dmitry Medvedev — the deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council and former president of Russia — and various members of Russia’s state-controlled media have floated the possibility of using nuclear weapons in recent weeks.

In a January post on his Telegram channel, Medvedev invoked the possibility of nuclear war should Russia be defeated in Ukraine.

“Defeat of a nuclear power in a conventional war may trigger a nuclear war,” he wrote.

Norway’s intelligence report warned about the dangers of NATO being directly drawninto the war in Ukraine due to “unintended incidents.”

“Russian decisions are characterized by a strong distrust of Western intentions. This perception has been significantly reinforced as a result of the West’s reaction to the invasion of Ukraine,” the report said. “Both the likelihood of misunderstandings between Russia and NATO and unintended incidents increase, which in turn increases the risk of escalation.”

Newsweek reached out to the ministries of foreign affairs for Norway and Russia for comment.

Comments
Steven S — The article obviously was referring to Russia, since it is trying to sell the idea that Russia is weak. The US and NATO have invested so much in the war in Ukraine that I don’t seem them willing to stop, which means that the next escalation will likely involve US/NATO troops going into Ukraine. I hope I am wrong about that.

Jack C — I hope you are wrong on that one, too. Maybe fighter jets will be sent before troops. Will that be enough to get more of us in the street? We can only hope so.
The squeals for more domestic munition production and stockpiles are already growing louder. Raytheon Missiles & Defense in Tucson is expanding from their $1/year-lease Air Force factory south of town into a University of AZ Tech Park where they can be closer to the university and a new hypersonic wind tunnel there… among other joint academic-war industry projects.

Nicolas D — Congress has already approved huge stockpiles of the kinds of weapons and ordinance being used in Ukraine, through a substitute amendment to the 2023 NDAA, which sailed through Congress before most of them had any idea what they were voting for. Marc Cancian at CSIS said, “This isn’t replacing what we’ve given [Ukraine]. It’s building stockpiles for a major ground war [with Russia] in the future.”

Steven S — I imagine Norway must be a little more nervous about Russia, now that everyone knows that Norway helped blow up the Nord Stream pipelines.
Also this . . .”With weakened conventional capability, the importance of nuclear weapons for Russia has increased significantly,” the report said.
Seriously? Russia has rebuilt its military manufacturing infrastructure to the point where Russian troops can fire 60,000 rounds (artillery and missiles) every day in Ukraine; it makes more missiles in two months than the US does in a year. Russia has reconstituted a tank army, it has mobilized 300,000 troops and is about to mobilize another 500,000 (with another 80,000 volunteers, too). NATO member states, the UK, France, and Germany, barely have enough ammunition to fight for a week in Ukraine (a French general said France has enough ammunition to go on a safari in Africa).
Or perhaps the article was referring to the weakened conventional capacity of NATO?

Jack C — Why would a weakened NATO/US conventional capacity increase the significance of Russian nukes? Putin has choices, too, but instead — like our own useful (to the international arms industry) idiots Blinken and Biden — the Russian imperialist autocrat is playing his own corresponding role in pursuit of escalation dominance.

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