The Hindu : Russia builds super-weapon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 22, 2004

International

International

Russia builds super-weapon

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, FEB. 21. Russia has developed a new strategic super-weapon, capable of beating any missile defence system, military officials and analysts said.

The new technology, tested during large-scale nuclear war games this week, is shrouded in a tight veil of secrecy.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, who first broke the news, said only that the new weapon could "hit targets continents away with high precision flying at hypersonic speed and performing deep manoeuvring, both in altitude and course." "No other country has such weapons," the Russian leader said.

Colonel-General Yuri Baluyevsky, first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, said the device tested on Wednesday was a "hypersonic vehicle" that moved at more than five times the speed of sound and could manoeuvre in orbit to dodge missile defence systems.

"The new flying vehicle is capable of both flying along ballistic trajectory at hypersonic speed and changing both altitude and direction of its flight in the atmosphere, which will enable it to overcome any future missile defence systems," Col.-Gen. Baluyevsky told a news conference.

"During the experiment conducted, we have proven that it is possible to develop weapons that would make any missile defence useless."

The General Staff chief refused to provide any further details, apart from saying that the new weapon would be inducted between 2010 and 2015. During the largest manoeuvres in more than 20 years this week, Russia fired two long-range ballistic missiles — Topol-M and RS-18, and launched a military satellite. It was not clear which of the missiles was involved in testing the new technology.

Unnamed General Staff officials said the vehicle tested this week was a manoeuvrable warhead with engines that enabled it to zigzag as it approached a target, rather than going into free fall.

Experts said Russia had probably created the space equivalent of a hypersonic cruise missile.

Russia is the only world power to have supersonic cruise missile technology of the kind that has been used in the Indo-Russian Brahmos anti-ship missile. The Soviet Union began designing manoeuvrable warheads in the 1980s after the U.S. President, Ronald Reagan, unveiled his "Star Wars" plans.

When the current President, George W. Bush, withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, which banned large-scale missile shields, and embarked on building a National Missile Defence, Moscow said it would come up with a much cheaper "asymmetric response" that would allow it to overcome the U.S. shield.

The Pentagon downplayed the development of the Russian super-weapon, saying Russia anyway has the capability to defeat the proposed anti-missile defence, effective only against limited attack, by launching hundreds of missiles.

However, the new guided missile technology would enable Russia to pierce U.S. defences even with a single warhead.

The news springs a nasty surprise on Mr. Bush as he heads for re-election this year, exposing him to criticism that he is sinking hundreds of billions of dollars into a system that would be ineffective.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

International

News Update

Stories in this Section

Iranian polls: Conservatives establish lead

U.S. court broadens anti-terrorism review

Russia builds super-weapon

Pakistan all set for military operation on Afghan border

We will never roll back n-programme: Musharraf

Awami League plans fresh agitation

Nuclear deterrent force is indigenous: North Korea

Berlusconi criticises proposals of `Big Three'

`India-Russia-China triangle has good prospects'

White powder in Indian passport found harmless

India, Pakistan on the right path: Powell