Dave Majumdar — Why is Russia Building Nuclear Powered Cruise Missiles? The Answer: “Capacity”

I would estimate that there is a certain amount of truth to this, but the author is looking at Russia through American eyes and seeing Russia replicate the US defense industry and military Keynesianism as integral to the US economy. At the same time, as the author points out, militaries and defense industries in all countries are looking to enhance their interests, which are served by larger appropriations.

On the other hand, as the author also admits, the Russian military is need of modernization. What he doesn't mention is that NATO ha been moving toward Russia since the Clinton Administration and is now encroaching on Russia's red lines. And, as Putin mentioned in his recent address, G. W. Bush's unilateral abrogation of the missile treaty was a signal. Moreover, everything changed when Clinton bombed Russian ally Serbia at the time of Kosovo.

The reality is that the US, NATO, Russia, and China are in a new arms race, and on the periphery of it are Iran, India, and others. Weaponry is being taken to a new level by all parties and there are no international accords related to this yet. Space and cyberspace are being weaponized, for example, and drones and robots are proliferating. 

This is new and largely unexplored territory. Of course, industry is salivating over the prospects of vastly increased spending on R&D and innovation, as well as building out.

The positive externality is military-initiated R&D and innovation will spin off into non-military development, too. For example, China is developing supercomputers and quantum computers that have been announced as being intentionally designed for dual-use.

The National Interest
Why is Russia Building Nuclear Powered Cruise Missiles? The Answer: “Capacity”

Dave Majumdar | defense editor for The National Interest

See also

American effort said to lag Russia, China

All this is top secret, so no one really knows, or will know unless the stuff get used. Let's hope that never happens.

“If you look at some of our peer competitors, China being one, the number of facilities that they’ve built to do hypersonics… surpasses the number we have in this country. It’s quickly surpassing it by 2 or 3 times. It is very clear that China has made this one of their national priorities. We need to do the same,” Walker told a press briefing.

This is emerging as a serious problem for the US owing to the sheer size of China. The US is a big country by world standards but it is still dwarfed by China and India.

Asia Times
US developing its own ‘invincible’ hypersonic weapons