Daid Axe, Daily Beast: Putin TV: Russia’s Got a Dirty Bomb
A Kremlin-owned TV network ‘accidentally’ airs footage of specs for Russia’s frightening new underwater nuclear weapon. Is it just a ruse to talk up Moscow’s military might?
A stray camera at a meeting of top Russian military leaders has allegedly captured a glimpse of the Kremlin’s possible plan for a bewildering and frightening new weapon—a radiation-scattering “dirty bomb.” One delivered by a drone submarine, which itself rides piggyback on another submarine.
The problem is: We have no way of knowing for sure if this is in fact an existing weapon or simply a media provocation designed to make us think that Russian President Vladimir Putin has got a dangerous new toy in his arsenal. If it’s real, then Russia is the first country we know about to come into possession of a weapon that, while not nearly as destructive as an atomic bomb, could spread lethal radiation over a wide area, rendering it uninhabitable. If the segment is a fake, it’s the latest in a long list of Kremlin media hoaxes.
Update: Russia Reveals Secret Nuclear-Armed Drone Sub (Washington Free Beacon)
WNU Editor: The disclosure of this weapon system is at the 1:46 mark in the above video. Was this disclosure done on purpose? Disinformation is a common Russian intelligence tactic, but in this case I doubt it. The reason why is that Putin would not use the office of the President for disinformation purposes .... he believes that the office is far more important than being used to confuse western military experts. So yes .... my gut is telling me that this was more of an accidental disclosure, and that "heads" are probably going to "roll".