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Navytimes

[quote]The role of tactical nuclear weapons in the Russian navy may grow, a news agency quoted a senior Russian admiral as saying Monday.

Vice Adm. Oleg Burtsev told the state-run RIA-Novosti that the increasing range and precision of tactical nuclear weapons makes them an important asset.

“Probably, tactical nuclear weapons will play a key role in the future,â€

So the Russian are doing for naval combat what NATO did for ground combat in the 50s: compensating for weakness with nuke spam.

Nuclear weapons, even tactical nuclear weapons, are not a military weapon. They are a political weapon, and the decision to employ them is a political one. That's not to say a nuke can't be used effectively as a naval weapon (it can), but that the use of nukes in any circumstance is a complicated question (as well it should be). This is not even a strategy of nuke-spam. This is smoke and mirrors.

Now and in the 50s, the tacnukes were always tripwires. Sure, Davy Crocketts could probably ruin the whole goddamn month of an armoured column. But more importantly, nukes would have been used. THey use their tacnukes, we use our bigger tacnukes..

There's a nastily brutal method proposed, but it pretty much guarantees you'd be remembered as the worst villain ever.