The new Russian arsenal that can deter wars
The Oreshnik and Burevestnik cruise missiles and Poseidon super-torpedoes give Russia an edge for the foreseeable future. Its openness to sharing Oreshnik systems with allies should interest India
13 Nov 2025
If Russia succeeds in wrapping up its ‘special military operations’ in Ukraine while US President Donald Trump remains in office, this war can end all wars in Europe and Eurasia for a long time to come. The recent weeks are witnessing a phenomenal shift in the ‘correlation of forces’ in international politics attributable to the dynamic relationship between Russia’s productive forces.
Russia, which left socialism behind and crafted a toolbox attuned to geopolitics, is regaining a favourable balance of power
vis-à-vis the West. In the current transitional era of revolutionary change and transformation in the global order, Russia’s surge becomes immensely consequential to India, which is also on a capitalist path of development littered with formidable challenges to its rise.
On Russia’s National Unity Day on November 4, President Vladimir Putin held a ceremony at the Kremlin to present state decorations to the designers of the Burevestnik cruise missile and the Poseidon unmanned submersible, the country’s newest futuristic weapon systems. The terrible beauty of these two weapons is that both are nuclear-powered and the West has neither any matching capability nor defence against them for the foreseeable future.
The 9M730 Burevestnik is a low-flying, nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed cruise missile that Putin called “a unique weapon that no other country possesses”, and would have a nearly unlimited range because of its onboard nuclear power. The missile’s test lasted around 15 hours, travelling more than 14,000 km. The Norwegian government confirmed the test flight launched out of Novaya Zemlya, an archipelago off the northern coast of Russia.
The Poseidon, named after the sea god in Greek mythology, is a nuclear-powered underwater drone—also with an unlimited range. Russian state media and officials claim that the super-torpedo is designed to trigger massive radioactive tsunamis capable of devastating coastal cities and rendering large areas uninhabitable for decades. In a State of the Union address in 2018 at the Russian parliament, Putin had stated that the Burevestnik and several other new strategic weapons were necessary to preserve strategic stability, citing the US’s withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty as destabilising.
These weapons are game-changers in the global strategic balance. Alongside comes the cutting-edge Oreshnik, a surface-to-surface hypersonic ballistic missile designed to be launched from ground or sea that strikes targets at speed exceeding Mach 10. Oreshnik, which has been inducted into the armed forces, displayed its massive destructive power last November in a sensational ‘target practice’ without munitions in Ukraine.
Some months ago, writing in
Foreign Policy, Decker Eveleth, an American expert at CNA, a Washington-based non-profit research organisation, assessed that Oreshnik could potentially cripple Nato’s operational readiness in a hypothetical war, giving Russia more non-nuclear options and theoretically lessening the need to use nuclear weapons early in a conflict.
Such a scenario is of interest from an Indian perspective, as
Tass has reported Russia may be willing to supply the Oreshnik to ‘allied nations’. The Russian defence industry currently produces up to 25 Oreshnik missiles per month, which allows the Russian armed forces to field approximately 300 such systems annually. But, as a Moscow expert puts it, “I wouldn’t cap it at this number. If necessary, production can be scaled up to supply additional export batches to our key foreign partners.” The point is, such capabilities serve not only as a strategic deterrent, but also as a diplomatic tool that can be extended to Russia’s foreign partners and allies, thereby safeguarding their sovereignty and territorial integrity.
The development of the above three weapon systems means that for the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age, Russia would have an edge over the US both in conventional warfare and in nuclear deterrence capability. They are intended to discourage US decision-makers from pursuing policies that threaten Russian interests. Indeed, in immediate terms, Russia’s expectation will be to influence US weapons transfers and policies in negotiations for a peace deal in Ukraine, and encourage Washington to agree to a one-year informal agreement to extend the New START treaty (without inspections), which expires in February. Interestingly, against this backdrop, Britain’s
Times featured an interview with Jens Stoltenberg, former Nato chief, that the alliance will not risk war with Russia over Ukraine.
At the Kremlin ceremony on November 4, Putin stated that these weapon systems are “of historic importance for our nation and for ensuring our security and strategic parity for decades to come—in fact, for the rest of the 21st century”. Interestingly, during the testing of Burevestnik on October 21, a Nato reconnaissance vessel was continuously present in the trial zone, but Putin said, “We did not interfere with its operation. They were allowed to watch.” The point is, the Burevestnik would give Russia an incredible ‘second-strike capability’.
The message is driven home making a mockery of the frenetic Nato expansion, which is geared to bring the alliance right up to Russia’s borders to deploy missile systems that could hit Moscow or St Petersburg within 4-5 minutes. By testing Burevestnik, which could reach the US homeland, Russia blurs the distinction between conventional and nuclear escalation.
Poseidon also signals that Russia is shaping a new image for its navy to counter Nato’s attempt to block Russian shipping in the Baltic. Submarines armed with hypersonic missiles are going to play a special role to add to Russia’s aircraft and drones. During a recent visit to Kaliningrad, Nikolai Patrushev, veteran aide to Putin and chairman of Russia’s Maritime Board, underscored the threat perceptions stemming from “possible restrictions by unfriendly countries on cargo transit to the Kaliningrad region, gas transportation, and maritime shipping. Western navies are already most concerned about Russian submarines, particularly those armed with cruise and hypersonic missiles, as well as naval missile-carrying aircraft”.
Attempts to detain ships bound for Russian ports in international waters are increasing under the sanctions. Through such intimidation, Nato’s strategic goal has been to push Russia out of the Baltic region. It is entirely conceivable that India also may face this paradigm in times to come.
If Russia succeeds in wrapping up its ‘special military operations’ in Ukraine while US President Donald Trump remains in office, this war can end all wars in E
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