Dead man's hand denies air strikes to Russia.

There is a tale in the Interesting Engineering that the U.S and its allies can destroy all Russian nuclear sites in less than two hours. The problem is that two hours is too long a time, and the Russian command system has time to launch missiles. The thing. The Western military commanders are afraid. Called: “Perimeter”. The dead hand trigger. If the Russian nuclear strike capacity turns too low, the dead man's hand can open fire with ICBM missiles. 

Also, if the commanders of that monstrous force are to be declared dead. The “Perimeter” starts the launching procedure. Two hours is too late to deny that operation. The problem is that the ICBM missiles can also be mounted on trains or on road-based launching systems. Those systems can be very hard to find. Things like missile submarines can make the launching operations. 

In addition to the USA, the Russian missile command comprises three or four parts. 

1) The ground-based tactical missiles. Those missiles. Like. Kalibr (CLUB-K) and the Iskander are highly mobile battlefield systems. 

2) Tactical and strategic bombers that can launch air-to-surface missiles and drop more or less free-fall bombs. 

3) Nuclear submarines and conventional submarines with nuclear strike capacity. Those submarines can launch nuclear cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. 

4) Silo-based and highly mobile intercontinental ballistic missile systems. Those systems. Like R-36M2 (SS-18), RS-28 (Sarmat), and RS-24 Yars(SS-27 mod 2 or SS-29). The last one is the mobile system that can be driven out. From bases very fast. Yars system replaced the RT-2P (Topol, and Topol M (”M for mobile”)) missiles. 

The remarkable thing about the Russian missiles is this. Those missiles are equipped with much more powerful warheads than Western missiles. And another thing is that. Russia's defense leans more toward nuclear weapons than Western defense. And the conventional troops' failures in the Ukraine war are growing nuclear weapon value for Kremlin leaders. 

Artist’s impression. Tu-95 launches Kh-55 missile (Wikipedia) 

The RT-2PM missiles are now mentioned as retired. But. The Russian inventory is not similar. To the Western. And it's possible that some of those missiles are still somewhere. The fact is that the new nuclear-powered “Skyfall” missiles are also coming to the arsenal. 

It’s possible that RS-28 Sarmat, which has some kind of technical problems, is “only” SS-18 with a new hypersonic “Avangard” glide warhead. The RS-28 “Sarmat” carries 16 warheads. Or in a lower payload, those systems can operate as FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems). 

Sarmat missile. 

The problem with Russian air-launched missiles is that their carrier vehicles, Tu-95 (Bear-H), Tu-22M (Backfire), and Tu-160 (Blackjack), are quite old systems. The Su-34, Su-35 (Improved Flanker), and MiG-31 (Foxhound) can also carry those missiles. The same aircraft can also carry hypersonic Kh-47M2 “Kinzhal” missile, and especially its nuclear strike variant. The problem is that those aircraft have limited operational time. The MiG-31 is the only one of those aircraft that can accelerate the Kinzhal missile to hypersonic speed. Normally, those missiles. Operational launching platforms are Tu-22M3M and MiG-31. 

The Tu-160 can carry nuclear-powered 9M730 Burevestnik  (SSC-X-9 “Skyfall”) missiles. The nuclear reactor makes it problematic to defend against those missiles. If the reactor damages those systems. Can deliver radioactive material all around the area. And the “Skyfall” missiles can probably be installed on board the Oscar and Kilo-class. And more modern submarines. Like Akula and Yasen-class boats.  The Sarmat missile has faced problems, but nuclear-powered cruise missile tests have succeeded. And the Yasen-class submarine is in the U.S. backyard with Mach 9 hypersonic missiles. 

"Nuclear engine-powered unlimited range Burevestnik missile illustration The Burevestnik missile is launched by a conventional rocket motor while the nuclear reactor powered engine takes over in flight providing it unlimited range and loitering ability." (DefenseMirror.com)

The problematic system is also a long-range “Poseidon” torpedo. A 50-100mt nuclear warhead makes those nuclear-powered underwater weapons very devastating. They can form a tsunami that causes very bad destruction. It’s possible that the Poseidon underwater unmanned vehicle (UUV) patrols the oceans.  And if it loses its contact with the base, it starts to make an attack. 

The older, Cold War-era Kh-55  (AS-15 “Kent”)  cruise missiles are similar to the retired Boeing AGM-86. The AS-15 is partially replaced by the Kh-101 (AS-23 “Kodiak”) nuclear cruise missile. The Kh-102 is a nuclear warhead, a long-range variant of the Kh-101 missile. All other than Kh-102 were used in the Ukraine war. 

The Russian nuclear strategy. Based on the political control. Possibility to use. Nuclear weapons require that those weapons exist. 

Every time a nuclear submarine or nuclear bomber is out from base, it’s possible that those pilots talk about something that they should not talk about.  Another thing is that Kremlin leaders know the value of nuclear weapons. They know that nuclear power denies the outside military operations in Russia. 

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/12/the-russian-militarys-unstoppable-sarmat-icbm-just-failed-again-and-badly/

https://www.19fortyfive.com/2025/12/russias-yasen-class-attack-submarine-is-in-americas-backyard-with-a-mach-9-hypersonic-punch/

https://www.armscontrol.org/act/2024-11/news/sarmat-failure-casts-doubt-russian-heavy-icbm

https://defensemirror.com/news/35154/Russia_Claims_Testing_Complete_of__Burevestnik__Nuclear_powered_Cruise_Missile

https://www.defencetoday.com/security/military-capabilities/russia-tests-nuclear-powered-nuclear-armed-burevestnik-cruise-missile/

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/09/24/europe/russia-sarmat-missile-test-failure-intl

https://interestingengineering.com/military/us-allies-edge-over-china-russia

https://www.technology.org/2025/12/02/putins-doomsday-rs-28-sarmat-crashes/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9K720_Iskander

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9M730_Burevestnik

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akula-class_submarine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-47M2_Kinzhal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-55

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kh-101

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikoyan_MiG-31

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oscar-class_submarine

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poseidon_(unmanned_underwater_vehicle)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-36_(missile)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RS-24_Yars

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT-2PM_Topol

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhoi_Su-35

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-22M

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-95

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-160

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasen-class_submarine