The Hindu : Russia to deploy advanced missiles

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 19, 2004

International

International

Russia to deploy advanced missiles

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, FEB. 18. Russia will soon deploy advanced long-range missiles and may build a missile defence system, said the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, today.

The new missiles "can precision-hit targets at intercontinental distances flying at hyper-sound speed and performing deep vertical and horizontal manoeuvres along their flight trajectory," Mr. Putin said. "No other country has such weapon."

At a news conference at the space centre in Plisetsk, where he attended large-scale nuclear forces war games, he said that missile test firings during the manoeuvres confirmed the effectiveness of the weapon system. He did not give any further details, leaving reporters to guess whether he was speaking about a fresh stock of Soviet-built RS-18 missiles (SS-19 `Stiletto' in NATO classification) that Russia had bought from Ukraine. Russia's space forces today test-fired a RS-18 strategic missile. Last September, Mr. Putin said Russia had several dozens of these missiles, each carrying six nuclear warheads, which were stockpiled without fuel and "in that sense are new".

The need to upgrade the nuclear arsenal was highlighted again today, when a long-range sea-based missile veered off course and had to be destroyed shortly after it was fired from aboard the nuclear submarine, Karelia, sitting on the seabed in the Barents Sea. A day earlier another submarine failed to fire two similar missiles because of technical glitches. The naval command denied Tuesday's incident, but admitted today's failure. Experts said the mishap was probably due to the missiles' old age, as the military usually test fire missiles with expired service life during manoeuvres. Mr. Putin also said Russia was developing missile defences technologies and "may at some point move to deploy such defensive systems". However, today "it is still premature" to do it, he said.

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