The Times:
The latest weapons developed by Russia have left the West “woefully” vulnerable, says General Sir Richard Barrons, former head of Britain’s joint forces command.
“The Russians have built scope and capability that we don’t have,” Barrons said last week. “It has put the West at risk in the short term.”
Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, recently boasted of an arsenal of new weapons — including hypersonic missiles, undersea drones and a nuclear-powered cruise missile “invulnerable to enemy interception” — and praised the scientists behind them as the “heroes of our time”.
The underwater drone can carry a two-megaton nuclear warhead to destroy naval bases. Hypersonic missiles can perform sharp manoeuvres at high speed, making them difficult to intercept.