This Russian missile could be the last thing you ever see

While Russia likes to point to the "successes" of its state re-armament program, the fact is that many of the weapons have fallen well short of their touted potential. The T-14 is underfunded and probably overhyped. The Su-57 can't be stealthy and fast at the same time. The nuclear-powered cruise missile might be what killed Russian scientists last month.

But the biggest Russian weapons program that America can't afford to have succeed is the Bulava missile that could end American cities.

The RSM-56 Bulava missile has some problems that we'll get into in a minute, but on paper, it's one of the most impressive weapons in the world today.

These nuclear-armed missiles are able to fly over 5,000 miles from the Borei-class submarine that launched them. That's far enough for the sub to fire from the southern coast of Brazil and hit anywhere on the U.S. East Coast. And when it hits, it hits hard. Estimates of its punching power vary, but it's thought to carry between 6 and 10 independently targeted warheads. And each warhead has a 100-150 kiloton yield.

While it's hard to get good numbers for how far the different warheads can spread, each one can essentially take out a city, and those cities can likely be spread 100 miles or more apart. Oh, and each sub carries 12-16 missiles.

Add to all of that the warhead follows a lower arc, foiling many missile defenses, and can deploy decoy warheads. It's a recipe for absolute destruction. Each submarine can take out, conservatively, 72 city-sized targets. Well, they can do so if each missile works properly.

But, you know, this is Russia we're talking about. There are 24 publically known tests of the Bulava missile, and only 16 of them were considered successful. That's not a horrible test rate for what was an experimental weapon, but since Russia has a history of overstating success and hiding failures, the real numbers could be worse.

Russia overhyped the Su-57, failed to field the T-14 in significant numbers, and then claimed its nuclear-powered cruise missile was ready to go about a year before that missile blew up in testing and killed top scientists. So, yeah, there's always the possibility that the Bulava doesn't work as advertised.

But since the missiles have had successful tests and can take out entire regions of America, it could legitimately be the last thing millions of Americans ever see if there's a nuclear shooting match between the U.S. and Russia. But hey, at least the suspense won't last long.