The Hindu : International : Russia to deploy new nuclear missile

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 30, 2004

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International

Russia to deploy new nuclear missile

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, APRIL 29. Russia will deploy a new long-range nuclear missile later this year following a series of test-firings, the defence chief has said.

A mobile version of the intercontinental ballistic missile Topol-M was fired from the northern cosmodrome Plisetsk and its unarmed warhead splashed down in a target area in central Pacific, the Defence Minister, Sergei Ivanov, reported to the President, Vladimir Putin, at a Cabinet meeting.

The test was carried out on April 20 to check the missile performance in hitting targets at its maximum range of 11,500 km, something Russia has not done since 1988. Mr. Ivanov said one more test was needed before a decision can be taken to deploy the missile.

Mr. Putin described the test as a `milestone' in defence building. Defence Ministry sources said the mobile Topol-M, mounted on a wheel chassis to increase its safety from pre-emptive enemy first strikes, is a more deadly strategic weapon than the silo-based Topol-M. The vehicle-based one will be armed with four to six individually guided nuclear warheads, as compared to one warhead on the other.

Thanks to dummy warheads that will be deployed on approaching targets, the new missile's ability to penetrate missile defences will increase from 60-65 per cent for the silo-based to 87 per cent.

The sources said Russia would build the mobile ones at a rate of one regiment comprising six to 10 missiles every 30 months.

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