The Norwegian Ministry of Defence claimed that the warships in the Northern Fleet of the Russian Navy were equipped with tactical nuclear weapons for the first time in 30 years.
In the Ministry’s annual report, Fokus 2023, prepared with the information collected by Norwegian military intelligence, it was claimed that a significant part of Russia’s tactical nuclear weapons capacity was used on warships in the Northern Fleet.
“The importance of nuclear weapons for Russia, whose conventional warfare capacity has weakened, has increased significantly,” the report said, arguing that this situation poses a threat to NATO countries that cannot be ignored.
In the report, it was claimed that nuclear weapons were placed on submarines and surface vessels in the Northern Fleet.
The last time nuclear weapons were deployed in the Cold War
It was also pointed out that the ships belonging to the Northern Fleet, whose headquarters are located in Severomorsk in Murmansk Oblast, were last deployed with nuclear weapons during the Cold War.
In addition to these, the report also claimed that the Russian navy has anti-satellite weapons, cyber attack software and devices to sabotage submarine infrastructures.
In 2017, the Norwegian-based news website Barents Observer claimed that Russian nuclear weapons depots were detected at five different locations in the Kola Bay, where the Northern Fleet bases are located. No information about this was shared in the Focus report.
According to the information shared by the US in October, the Russian military has approximately 2 thousand tactical nuclear warheads.
On the other hand, with the conflicts that started with the military operation order given by Russian President Vladimir Putin on 24 February, concerns of nuclear war were on the agenda again.
In October, Putin also ordered the testing of the hypersonic nuclear missile called Satan 2 (Satan 2) by the end of the year.
Western military sources had suggested that the 208-tonne missile, which could destroy Britain in 6 minutes, could be tested on 15 to 25 February.
