Kremlin admits TV stations showed ‘secret’ nuclear torpedo plan

The Kremlin says secret plans for a Russian long-range nuclear The Kremlin says secret plans for a Russian long-range nuclear torpedo called “Status-6” should not have appeared on Russian TV Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“It is true that a few secret information was caught by the camera and therefore it was subsequently removed, ” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said late Wednesday.

The Kremlin has confirmed that two of Russia’s main television channels broadcast details of a planned new nuclear torpedo, apparently accidentally, and said it hopes it will not happen again.

In reaction, Russian Federation will counter NATO’s US-led missile defense program, and develop new strike weapons which will be able to pierce the shield.

Launched by a submarine, it would create “wide areas of radioactive contamination”, the document said.

The prying eyes of one Russian state TV cameraman on Tuesday revealed the existence of a new Russian unmanned submarine packed to the teeth with radioactive material and, possibly, a thermonuclear weapon of an unknown yield.

But while the torpedo’s real range could be much shorter, its relatively small size, a purported operational depth of 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) and a speed of 105 kilometers (65 miles per hour) appear realistic, making it hard to spot and destroy, a few observers said.

A Russian analyst told The Moscow Times the leak was likely intentional.

The document was shown at a meeting where Putin warned that “Russia will take necessary retaliatory measures to strengthen the potential of our strategic nuclear forces”.

Russia has been assured on many occasions that the European segment of the U.S. missile defense shield is developing in the wake of a threat from Iranian ballistic missiles, the Russian president said.

Russia’s secret plans for a nuclear torpedo are no longer secret, reports The Guardian. A cobalt nuclear warhead has never been tested due to the massive radioactive traces it would leave in its wake.

He said: “We have pointed out that these actions [construction of the shield] are an attempt to undermine the nuclear parity principle, and to destabilise the existing world and regional order”.

Russia’s been pretty cagey lately, what with the whole Ukraine thing, so any development like this is sure to ratchet up the tension even further.

In May, North Atlantic Treaty Organisation condemned Russia’s plans to deploy nuclear-capable missiles in Kaliningrad, a Russian region sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland, as well as its increased number of nuclear bomber flights.