Last night. At midnight, the last treaty. That limits nuclear weapons ended.

The worst thing in history is here. The world is without a treaty that limits the R&D work with nuclear weapons. The INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.  The treaty that limited the intermediate-range ballistic missiles ended in 2019, and missiles like “Oreshnik” are the new threat. Oreshnik is the IRBM missile that can hit any target in Western Europe. The end of the START II treaty opens the road to nuclear tests that happen underwater and in the atmosphere. If the new treaty is not coming. That means the world will fall to the 1950’s. 

“An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range between 3,000 to 5,500 km (1,864 to 3,418 miles), categorized between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying ballistic missiles by range is done mostly for convenience. In principle, there is little difference between a high-performance IRBM and a low-performance ICBM, because decreasing payload mass can increase the range over the ICBM threshold. The range definition used here is used within the U.S. Missile Defense Agency. “ (Wikipedia, Intermediate-range ballistic missile)

Russian “Oreshnik” missile in its transporter. 

An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than 5,500 kilometres (3,400 mi), primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness but have never been deployed on ICBMs. Some modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), allowing a single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. The United States, Russia, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, Israel, and North Korea are the only countries known to have operational ICBMs. Pakistan is the only nuclear-armed state that does not possess ICBMs.” (Wikipedia, Intercontinental ballistic missile)

There are also other types of nuclear weapon systems. Like FOBS (Fractional Orbital Bombardment System). That means space- or orbital-based nuclear bombardment system. In the beginning, that system meant Soviet spaceborne nuclear weapons. They planned to drop nuclear bombs from satellites. But later. The term FOBS came to mean all spaceborne nuclear weapons. 

The main problem is that. Any treaty is only paper if the participants only search for. How to circumvent the contract. Technical advancements. Including. A new computer-based targeting and fire control system makes it possible. The ICBM missile is to attack. To any point of its flightpath. The only reason why the IRBM missiles are developed is that. Those missiles are lighter and easier to transport than ICBM missiles. Also, things like Tomahawk missiles can be launched from the same catapults. These are used for BQM-109 drone launchers. 

Things like hypersonic “Kalibr” missiles can also be launched from ground-based systems. Another question is this: why were ship-launched IRBM and cruise missiles left outside the INF treaty? The “Kalibr”, or its CLUB-K container launch system. It’s easy to transport to the ground or to ships. Those kinds of systems are an easy way to circumvent those treaties. 

We must not say that a new Cold War is coming. We must say that we are in a more complicated situation than ever before, including the Cold War era. The thing that makes the situation more complicated is that. There are many other countries that have nuclear weapons. Their stockpiles are not as large as the Russian and the USA nuclear stockpiles. But those weapons are extremely devastating. Most of those new nuclear states are not members of any nuclear treaty. 

And they see a situation where they can ask the USA and Russia to decrease their nuclear strike capacity, before they get involved or even start to discuss their involvement in START or its successor. That means that. Those third-party nuclear states will increase their strike capacity. Until. It’s on the same level as the U.S. and Russian capacity. And that causes problems in the nuclear treaties. Most of those nuclear limitation treaties are made between the U.S. and Russia. And there are many more states with nuclear arsenals. And those countries want the same respect that the U.S. and Russia have. The world needs a treaty that controls those weapons. But the world also needs willingness to. follow those treaties. 

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4g31n4ey9go

https://nuclearweaponarchive.org

https://www.reuters.com/world/us-russia-close-deal-extend-new-start-nuclear-arms-treaty-axios-reports-2026-02-05/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractional_Orbital_Bombardment_System

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-range_ballistic_missile

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intermediate-Range_Nuclear_Forces_Treaty

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oreshnik_(missile)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_START

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_I

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/START_II