But what if the current tensions between the West and Russia over Ukraine, say, or between the US and China over Taiwan broke out into hostilities? The strike, known as a counterforce strike, would be concentrated away from major population and industrial centers. The Russians don't have much in the way of long-range power projection capability," said Mark Galeotti, a Russian security expert at New York University.Moscow's military campaign in Syria is relying on supply lines that require air corridors through both Iranian and Iraqi air space. The commander of U.S. Strategic Command, Admiral Charles Richard, testified to Congress in April 2021 that the United States might well face a two-front or even a three-front war if Russia were to . Did they look at how much in demand are Russian resources before the sanctioning Russia? And the U.S. military maintains a broad technological edge and a vastly superior ability to project power around the world. The intervention threatens to upset Putins chessboard and injects a new force into the conflict that could beat Russias army in the field. "It is estimated that there would be more than 90 million people dead and injured within the first few hours of the conflict," Glaser said. While it is possible, of course, that a nuclear exchange remains "limited" and the other side backs off or responds with conventional weapons only, there would be huge pressure on decision-makers to "respond in kind" and deny the side to strike first any advantage. So is it all doom and gloom? "Hybrid warfare casts doubts about when there should be a military response, or whether this is a civilian issue that should be taken care of by local law enforcement," he said. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Most importantly, the strike would preserve Washingtons ability to communicate with its nuclear forces. More broadly, Moscow is signaling a long-term interest in extending its umbrella of anti-access area denial capabilities into the Middle East. "I think this would play out in a very fast-paced environment that's heavily reliant on the information domain,"says Meia Nouwens, a senior research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) focusing on China's use of data for military advantage. What Would a NATO-Russia War Really Look Like? What would a U.S.-Russia war look like? | The Week ", "The United States and Russia are going for different things," Galeotti said. More than 30 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia may be headed for the second act of dissolution if Ukraine wins the war. Scientists at Princeton University decided to develop this potential scenario using "independent assessments of current U.S. and Russian force postures, nuclear war plans, and nuclear weapons targets." As . NATO said earlier this week it had stepped back from a floated idea to reinforce the alliance's military presence in countries bordering Russia, preferring for now to suspend cooperation with Moscow and give more time to talks. All of this at a time when Russian forces are massing on Ukraine's borders, Moscow has been demanding Nato withdraw from some of its member states, and China is making ever louder noises about retaking Taiwan - by force if necessary. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin). In our scenario, the Joint Chiefs of Staff argue that the United States has nothing to lose by trying, and in doing so, could attempt to reduce the overall damage of an inevitable second strike. "I think we're going to have a very dangerous period within the next five to 10 years when a lot of the downsizing is going to happen. In our scenario, well look at a surprise nuclear first strike that leads to all-out war. Would a nuclear counterattack achieve anything? For example, he said, "one can look at the U.S. Navy as massively superior to the Russian navy. A review of the military balance in the immediate Baltic theater would seem to give Russia an initial advantage in an aerial campaign against NATO, if Moscow's political objective was to push NATO out of the Baltics. SERGEY BOBOK/AFP via Getty Images. A war between NATO and Russia would be tantamount to World War 3. The problem is, with a nuclear power, you try to avoid a full-scale fighting.". What would a war with Russia look like today. That's reflected in the fact that Russia maintains a lone aircraft carrier while the U.S. Navy's 10-carrier fleet operates on a continuing global deployment cycle. It looked like World War I. What would World War 3 actually look like? - Russia Beyond She is referring, of course, to Russia and China, described respectively in the UK government's Integrated Review as "the acute threat" and the long-term "strategic rival" to the West. Defense News' Russia correspondent, Matthew Bodner, contributed to this report from Moscow. Read about our approach to external linking. Saturday 29 April 2023 01:15, UK. As Russia wages war in Ukraine, experts have described what would happen in a nuclear strike, which is unlikely. "This is really quite difficult for them. It might seem like the war in Ukraine is slipping from the radar of the world's media, implying it has reached stalemate and ground to . While fighting has thus far remained quite limited, the desire to defend national prestige can rapidly become poisonous for even the wisest and most sensible leaders. Ukrainian servicemen patrol near the chemical plant in Avdeevka, a town just north of the city of Donetsk, on June 20. The audio-visual scenario is called "Plan A" and it shows how devastating a nuclear war would be. With much of Europe destroyed, NATO launches around 600 warheads from U.S.-land and submarine-based missiles at Russian nuclear forces. The Plan A simulation was originally prepared for an exhibition at Princeton's Bernstein Gallery in 2017 and was later made available to the public as a YouTube video in 2019. The borders of Russia today would also look different. Russia has one of the biggest nuclear arsenals in the world, and is estimated to have thousands of nuclear warheads in its stockpile, assigned for both long-range strategic launchers and shorter-range tactical nuclear forces. Bombers are particularly useful in this situation, as they could be used to actively hunt down what remained of Russias ICBMs, particularly those like the SS-27 mounted on 16-wheeled missile transport trucks. The war in Ukraine has caused concerns about nuclear war. A simulation shows how a nuclear war between Russia and NATO could potentially play out in a horrific scenario that would result in the deaths of millions of people around the world within hours. On February 24, Russian forces began advancing into Ukrainian territory across several fronts, marking a major escalation in a conflict that started in 2014. That threat could become a powerful one if Russia's true goal in the Baltics is to force NATO into showing that it won't honor Article V, the key element of the alliance treaty that holds an attack on one member nation will be met with a swift and unified response from all member nations. Fortunately, there is good reason to believe that we will have some warning of war; as was the case along the Ukrainian border, Chinese preparation for conflict would be glaringly visible to everyone concerned. But while Russia's conventional forces are less impressive than its nuclear forces, there are specific conventional areas where the Russians excel among them aircraft, air defenses, submarines,. Russia has the world's largest nuclear arsenal. If it happens, a Russian invasion of Ukraine would almost certainly be a bloody affair with many casualties and widespread destruction, experts say. "The military balance can only be ensured by Russia's nuclear might, which isn't as expensive to maintain as many people think. Over the past year tensions between Greece and Turkey have increased substantially, driven in large part by Turkey's assertive foreign policy turn and by the domestic vulnerability of the Erdogan regime. While it is not clear if Russian President Vladimir Putin would ever go so far as to use nuclear weapons, the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine has led to a spike in discussions about the potential outbreak of nuclear war. Experts inside Russia believe the incursion into Syria, along with Putin's aggressive speech at the United Nations on Sept. 28, signal his long-term interest in becoming a key player in the region. Putin and his military have menaced the Baltic countries, who are among the newest and weakest NATO partners. But it is now developing some key technologies, new fighting tactics and a brazen geopolitical strategy that is. Analysts say Russia has a menu of options to attack at any moment it chooses, from shock-and-awe style air strikes to a ground invasion along a broad front. "The Russian defense industry is being rebuilt from ruins," said Vadim Kozyulin, a military expert at the Moscow-based PIR Center, a think tank. The future of the Ukraine conflict is unclear. But few believe any conflict would play out like that. What would a Russian assault on Ukraine look like? There may also be a significant public backlash against a change of government led from Moscow. "We see some very sophisticated air defenses going into those airfields, we see some very sophisticated air-to-air aircraft going into these airfields," Gen. Phillip Breedlove, chief of the U.S. European Command and also the Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, said Sept. 28. Avangard hypersonic glide vehicles rain down on early warning radar bases across North America, destroying the sensors needed to detect the main surprise attack. The second possibility is the eastern war approach. Sgt. and Russian leaders understand that a full-scale nuclear war would be a civilization-ending event, Drozdenko explains. She believes the West's focus on the Middle East for the past two decades has allowed its adversaries to do a lot of catching up in military terms. Concerns over the ability of Ukraine to continue the war in the long-term might force Kyiv to take risky steps of its own to break the stalemate. Where precisely might a conflict with Russia occur? Kyles articles have appeared at The Daily Beast, U.S. Since its annexation of Crimea in early 2014, Russia has steadily expanded its military presence in the region. Any fight between Turkey and Greece would immediately involve NATO, and would almost certainly result in some degree of opportunistic intervention by Russia. China, in comparison, has about 250 nuclear warheads, a bit less that France (300) and a. In February 2022, Russia attacked Ukraine, starting the largest clash in Europe since World War II. According to a recent report by international think tank Chatham House, Russia's military strength in its Western Military District stands at 65,000 ground troops, 850 pieces of artillery, 750 tanks, and 320 combat aircraft. The new forward operating base will give Russia the capability to fly combat air sorties, intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance missions and drones across the Middle East. Down goes the money for more traditional hardware and troop numbers. The war game is notable because of the . Russias invasion of Ukraine will almost certainly not start an all-out nuclear war. As Russia's Ukraine war intensifies, some warn nuclear escalation is This is well below the threshold of warfare and much of it deniable. Dr. Farley is also a founder and senior editor of Lawyers, Guns and Money. "I have not seen ISIL flying any airplanes that require SA-15s or SA-22s [Russian missiles]. Disputes between Athens and Ankara over energy exploration in the Aegean have driven the current tension, although the territorial disagreement underlying the argument have existed for decades. Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota would receive at least 800 nuclear strikes between them. These five areas pose the greatest risk for the eruption of what we might be tempted to call "World War III.". The UK has taken the decision to cut its conventional forces in favour of investing in new technology. AFP PHOTO/ ALEKSEY CHERNYSHEV (Photo credit should read ALEKSEY CHERNYSHEV/AFP/Getty Images). Here's what it might look like. Is climate change killing Australian wine? We can hope that the leaders of the world's great powers will take care over the coming year with the vast stockpiles of weapons that they control. Andrew Tilghman is the executive editor for Military Times. Franz-Stefan Gady, the specialist in future warfare, believes this will certainly yield benefits in 20 years' time but before then there will be a worrying gap. Putin's spokesman pointed on Tuesday to the Biden administration . Join the news democracyWhere your votes decide the Top 100, The world has been reminded of a global war threat after Vladimir Putin claimed he isn't 'bluffing' and accused the West of engaging in 'nuclear blackmail. The quality of Russia's stealth aircraft is far weaker than those of the U.S., but Russia has cutting-edge anti-stealth systems, and also has invested heavily in robust surface-to-air missile systems and arrayed its forces domestically to protect its border regions. According to a recent open-source study (not published in a peer-reviewed journal), such an all-out attack would kill as many as 104,241,000 Americans. 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Russias leadership would then warn that any attempt to retaliate would unleash the rest of the countrys nuclear weapons, killing millions more and destroying the U.S. as a military, political, and economic entity. But it has not yet provided any offensive weaponry and ammunition, and it has not threatened military action against Russia. Fighting back would mean launching what remained of its ICBMs and any bombers that survived, using them to hunt down remaining Russian nuclear weapons. If China attacks Russia, it can be assured it will suffer a devastating counter strike. KYIV "After Ukraine, Chechnya," says the Chechen commander fighting on Kyiv's side. Meanwhile, the Russian army, still predominantly a conscripted force, is being transitioned to an American-style professional force. Those that survive would be left without power, medical care, communications, and viable food and fuel distribution networks. President Biden speaks during the U.S. Conference of Mayors winter meeting in D.C. on Jan. 21. The simulation begins in the context of a conventional conflictRussia fires a warning shot from a base near the city of Kaliningrad in an attempt to stop a U.S./NATO advance. 30 Apr 2023 13:25:28 A ceasefire in eastern Ukraine also appears to be holding, although each side remains wary, and local parliamentary elections set to take place Oct. 25 may be upended by pro-Russian separatists, who aim to hold their own elections. The United States might choose not to retaliate, in order to avoid escalating, or it might well decide to retaliate with tactical nuclear weapons of its own. Recent tests of US systems, by contrast, have not gone well. Both the United States and Russia believe that a nuclear war is not winnable and should never be fought. Russia-Ukraine war - latest news updates; Pjotr Sauer. Here, the US has the qualitative edge over its potential adversaries and Michele Flournoy believes it can offset areas where the West is outnumbered by the vast size of China's People's Liberation Army. "In addition to the immediate death and suffering and economic and societal collapse, in the years following the war, the phenomenon of nuclear winter would exacerbate the catastrophe," he said, pointing to one study which found that more than five billion people could eventually die from a nuclear conflict between the United States and Russia.