Defense Focus: Fuel bomb fury

WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (UPI) -- There is nothing new about vacuum bombs -- the fearsome things have been around for more than 40 years. But the fact Russia last week announced it had successfully exploded a new one is important for many reasons.

The vacuum, or thermobaric, bomb was the most powerful of its kind ever detonated, Gen. Alexander Rukshin, deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said on Sept. 11. Indeed, Rukshin added the weapon was as powerful as an atomic bomb, but it did not not generate the deadly lingering radiation a nuclear weapon does, according to a report by RIA Novosti.

The thermobaric bomb uses a fuel-air explosive to generate over-pressures equivalent to those generated by a nuclear explosion, Rukshin said.

"It is environmentally friendly, compared to a nuclear bomb, and it will enable us to ensure national security and at the same time stand up to international terrorism in any part of the globe and in any situation," he said, according to the news report.

In fact, the United States pioneered the development of these weapons decades ago. It was only a matter of time before other countries followed suit.

For Russia, having such a weapon has many advantages. It confirms the country's role as the thermonuclear and military giant of the entire Eurasian land mass.The European Union to the west has more than three times Russia's population and and a vastly superior gross domestic product, but it remains a military pygmy in comparison.

China to the east is Russia's partner in running the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. It has more than nine times Russia's population and a vastly larger GDP and industrial base, which is also expanding far more rapidly. But China still cannot begin to develop the nuclear and ballistic missile technologies -- including multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle warheads -- that only Russia and the United States have truly mastered. And they aren't anywhere near testing their own thermobaric bombs.

In revealing comments, Rukshin also said the new weapon was not covered by, and therefore does not break, any of the international agreements on nuclear or other arms control that Russia has formally agreed to.

The thermobaric bomb is therefore an ideal doomsday weapon for Russia to develop. It kills people , destroys cities and annihilates armies with the same effectiveness that a small- or medium-sized nuclear warhead would. But it does not generate any of the deadly lingering radiation with isotopic half-lives of many years or even decades that the more fearsome nuclear weapons do. And since it is technically a conventional weapon,. as Rukshin pointed out, it is not covered by any of the nuclear arms control and nonproliferation treaties and international agreements that Russia and the United States have signed.

The Russian army has already shown in ts two Chechen wars over the past 13 years that it is ready to pull out all the stops and fight with ruthlessness to defend the vast territories of the Russian Federation, even without the other former Soviet republics.

Now, awash with the windfall earnings from the largest combined oil and gas exports on earth, Russia is modernizing and upgrading the conventional and strategic nuclear weaponry of its armed forces on a scale not seen for 30 years.

The successful thermobaric bomb test has to be seen as part of that build up,. It confirms that Russia remains the military giant of Eurasia with only the United States still able to effectively "balance" it. And it sends a sober warning to more idealistic and reckless minds running the EU that "soft" power by itself is not enough to buy security and respect in a still dangerous world.

That is especially the case when you have neighbors arming themselves with bigger and and better thermobaric, or vacuum, bombs.