Weapons that give NATO chills at Vostok-2018 Exercise

According to RT, along with Russia, the Chinese and Mongolian armies will also participate in the series of exercises called Vostok-2018 taking place in Siberia and the Far East. Defense Minister Shoigu assessed that Vostok-2018 has an unprecedented scale in terms of geography and number of participating soldiers.

Vostok-2018 will officially be launched in September 2018. Minister Shoigu stated: "The Eastern and Central Military Districts, the Northern Fleet, military transport aircraft, command centers and armed forces of Mongolia and China will participate in this joint exercise."

However, Russia has not announced the total number of soldiers who will participate in Vostok-2018. Meanwhile, China confirmed that it will send 3,000 soldiers. The Chinese Ministry of Defense added that it will send 900 weapons units, 30 fighter jets and helicopters to Russia to participate in the exercise.

The largest military exercise in Soviet history was held in 1981, however Vostok-2018 is expected to surpass the scale of Zapad-2017, the 1981 exercise, and will cause anxiety in the West.

The West's concern is completely understandable not only because of the scale and quantity of weapons in this exercise, but also because of the appearance of the weapon that the West is most afraid of today, which is the Iskander-K complex of the Russian Army.

It is known that Iskander-K was also launched by Russia for the first time at Zapad-2017. The launch was carried out by the strategic missile unit of the Western Military District at the final stage of this joint exercise between Russia and Belarus.

When talking about the power of the Iskander-K version, Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said that the Iskander-K uses R-500 missiles with a range of about 2,000 km, and a CEP target deviation radius of only about 7 meters.

It is designed to penetrate missile defense systems deployed in the European region. The missile is capable of carrying conventional or tactical nuclear warheads. It is also reported that the R-500 missile can reach hypersonic speeds of Mach 5 at an altitude of 50 km.

Although official information about both the R-500 and Iskander-K is still quite mysterious, it shows that the appearance of this type of missile has made NATO countries restless. Especially when there is also information that Russia has deployed the K version of the Iskander complex in the Kaliningrad overseas territory.

This information has caused different reactions in the West. According to NATO Deputy Secretary General, Mr. Rouz Gettemyuller, members of the alliance that are neighbors of Russia all believe that Russia's deployment of Iskander-K missile systems in the Kaliningrad region has become a security threat to them and Europe.

Not only that, Mr. Gettemyuller also added that Russia had just launched the Iskander-K and this was a serious violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

Meanwhile, the head of German intelligence Bruno Kahl in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine emphasized that the threat from Russia is increasingly growing and developing.

"Russia has doubled its combat power on its western border. Not only the Iskander-K complex, but also many aircraft in other areas such as Crimea. This action is considered a potential threat to all of Europe," said Bruno Kahl.