A Look Into Russia's Military Technologies

(One of Russia's current tank models)

     Over the course of the past few years, Russia has been making breakthroughs in developments of innovative technologies. Being one of the world's leading producers of modern technology, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone that the country has been integrating their latest developments into their military. Specifically, Russia has been focusing most of their research into complex robotics and artificial intelligence. Right now, Russia owns the second largest Unnamed Aerial Vehicle (UAV) fleet out of every country, behind the United States and above Canada, with nearly four-thousand of these in their arsenal. "Russia’s sophistication in military AI is characterized by fast, efficient machines that can handle data, break down the complex information within split seconds, and relay it to the soldiers handling it" (Giridharadas, 2019).

(A look at one of Russia's, on-ground ballistic missiles)

Russia has been developing and perfecting their SS-26 Stone's, which is a fancy name for their short-range road unit nuclear ballistic missile systems. Currently, these are still being worked on, however, by the end of 2020, the country says that all of the missile units of the Russian Ground Forces will be fitted and equipped with these attachments. "The tactical ballistic missile can be deployed to destroy a host of different targets including missile and multiple launch rocket systems, artillery batteries, as well as command posts and communications centers" (Gady, 2017). Russia plans on sharing these missiles with countries such as China, India, and South Korea, however, the variants that would be shipped out to these countries cannot be armed with a nuclear warhead, whereas the country's local variant can be. 

While it's impressive how rapidly Russia is pushing out and perfecting this kind of technology, it makes you wonder how this will affect the world in the long run, and what these breakthroughs mean for other countries. If you wish to read up more about some of the technologies discussed in this post, consider checking out these two sites to learn more about them:

Robotics and AI:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/russias-military-transforming-and-getting-stronger-right-our-eyes-67907

Ballistic Missiles:

https://thediplomat.com/2017/05/russia-to-arm-ground-forces-with-new-ballistic-missile-by-2020/