ABSTRACT

Despite the Cold War ending over 20 years ago, the Russian Federation is making great efforts to modernize its strategic offensive and defensive capabilities. Although it is tempting to associate this modernization with recent US/NATO tensions, Russia’s efforts to modernize its strategic assets has much more to do with two US programs started in the previous decade, the Ballistic Missile Defense System and Prompt Global Strike programs. The reasoning behind this perception of threat is keyed to Russian thinking on how these programs could undermine Russia’s strategic deterrence capabilities as these US programs mature. Russian efforts to modernize its strategic nuclear forces, non-strategic nuclear forces, strategic non-nuclear forces, and certain electronic warfare and space-based capabilities may directly be attributed to overcoming these US programs.