“American Officials Said”: Russia Deployed Several SS-21 Missile Launchers and Supply Vehicles to South Ossetia
August 18th, 2008This story is actually several days old. I first saw it on Democracy Now, but I couldn’t find any confirmation of it. I held off on posting this.
Can we get any confirmation of this from sources besides the U.S. Government?
“American officials said,” doesn’t cut it.
Via: New York Times:
Even as Russia pledged to begin withdrawing its forces from neighboring Georgia on Monday, American officials said the Russian military had been moving launchers for short-range ballistic missiles into South Ossetia, a step that appeared intended to tighten its hold on the breakaway territory.
The Russian military deployed several SS-21 missile launchers and supply vehicles to South Ossetia on Friday, according to American officials familiar with intelligence reports. From the new launching positions north of Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital, the missiles can reach much of Georgia, including Tbilisi, the capital.
…
Russia’s efforts to strengthen its military position in the region have important political and military implications. American officials have demanded that Russian troops pull back from their positions inside Georgia and that the Russian military presence in the enclaves of South Ossetia and Abkhazia be limited to the Russian peacekeeping force that was there before the conflict erupted earlier this month. Ultimately, American officials say, the Russian peacekeepers themselves should be replaced by a neutral, international peacekeeping force.
But instead of thinning out their forces in South Ossetia, the Russians appear to have been consolidating their presence there by deploying SS-21 missile launchers and, American officials say, by installing surface-to-air missiles near their military headquarters in Tskhinvali. Such moves appear to buttress assertions last week by Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, that South Ossetia and Abkhazia are to be separated from Georgia.
Some background on the SS-21, for anyone too lazy to look ’em up on WikiPedia: it’s a short-range tactical ballistic missile launcher, with a range up to 120km or possibly a bit further. Each missile can carry either a conventional high explosive warhead, a 100kiloton tactical nuke or possibly a chemical weapons load. There’s typically 18 launch vehicles in a brigade, with 2 or 3 missiles per launch vehicle.
So I would think that Russia would only deploy SS-21s into active combat theaters where it anticipates large-scale ground engagements; but these may have been previously used in Grozny during the Chechen war as another big artillery piece to take down suspected “insurgent” positions.
So this isn’t necessarily a sign that the Russians are gearing up for a larger confrontation with Georgia or NATO forces there. But if this is true, it’s Bad News for the area. Not even the Russians would drive and park these things in South Ossetia unless they were expecting or threatening some serious action.
Russia used Scuds in Chechnya.
They just like to have them around if needed.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/588025.stm