The Hindu : International : New nuclear missile system has no parallel: Russia

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Friday, Nov 19, 2004

International

International

New nuclear missile system has no parallel: Russia

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, NOV. 18. Russia is building four new types of nuclear-capable missiles, a Defence Ministry source said today. He was commenting on the President, Vladimir Putin's sensational announcement on Wednesday that in the next few years Russia would deploy brand new nuclear missile systems that would put it years ahead of any other nuclear powers.

The Defence Ministry source confirmed that Russia was indeed developing and testing "fundamentally new systems of missile weapons, both nuclear and conventional."

"They indeed have no analogues in the world," the Defence Ministry source told the Itar-Tass news agency. "No other industrially developed nation has such systems today or will have in the next five to 10 years."

The source disclosed that the new weapon systems included one short-range and three long-range nuclear-capable missiles.

Tests successful

The short-range missile is the 300-km high-precision Iskander that has successfully passed the tests this year and will be deployed next year. Out of three new long-range missile systems the source mentioned two — the land-based Topol-M and the sea-launched Bulava ballistic missiles that "will form the backbone of the Russian strategic nuclear forces in the near future."

The mobile version of the Topol-M Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) is capable of delivering three nuclear warheads to targets 10,000 km away.

Hypersonic vehicle

The source did not reveal the nature of the third strategic missile system Russia is building, but experts said Mr. Putin was referring to a new re-entry vehicle designed to outwit the missile defence shield being developed by the United States.

General Yuri Baluyevsky, Chief of Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, said in March that the military was building a "hypersonic flying vehicle" able to manoeuvre between space and the Earth's atmosphere. The Bulava and the re-entry vehicle have already been test-fired, while the mobile Topol-M is to be tested by the end of the year, reports in the Russian press said.

All three are reportedly designed to penetrate the National Missile Defence system under development in the U.S.

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