If Russia were to launch their Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), the US would know through their satellites and would respond with their Minuteman III ICBMs and Trident Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs).
From there, shit goes downhill really fast. If either nation were to deploy their nukes, the other would respond in kind. Besides, it’s not like RS-28 is some super powerful Gigaton warhead that would secretly travel across the atmosphere and wipe out the entire nation. The fact is, the US will detect a nuclear launch from Russia or any other nuclear state that they monitor.
The days of one massive 20 Megaton warhead are obsolete. Modern ICBMs carry a system called MIRVs (Multiple Independent Re-entry Vehicles) which use 500 Kiloton – 1.5 Megaton warheadsAnd still getting smaller. It’s more efficient to spread out the firepower to hit multiple cities with just 1 ICBM.
This is how both Russian and American weapon systems currently work, but are being modified again under newer programs.
Due to the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) ICBMs and SLBMs have had the amount of warheads reduced down to one MIRV warhead in the nose cones, though not all of them have been converted at this time.
The Minuteman III and Trident II are the current deployed weapon systems in the US arsenal, but both are having their targeting systems updated to reduce the need of a larger yield warhead for effect and to reduce the need for multiple warheads to meet the START II treaty.
The bottom line, Russia is not the only nation that has upped their nuclear capability, the US has been actively modernizing their arsenal to meet and neutralize any threats. And then there are subs that will deliver the next strike to make sure that nothing survives – Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD).
