Current
TOPOL-M Nuclear Missile silo views and recent test
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MOSCOW (AP) - President Vladimir Putin
said Wednesday that Russia is developing a new form of
nuclear missile unlike those held by other countries,
news agencies reported.
Speaking at a meeting of the Armed Forces'
leadership, Putin reportedly said that Russia is researching
and successfully testing new nuclear missile systems.
"I am sure that ... they will be
put in service within the next few years and, what is
more, they will be developments of the kind that other
nuclear powers do not and will not have," Putin was
quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
Putin reportedly said: "International
terrorism is one of the major threats for Russia. We understand
as soon as we ignore such components of our defense as
a nuclear and missile shield, other threats may occur."
No details were immediately available,
but Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said earlier this month
that Russia expected to test-fire a mobile version of
its Topol-M ballistic missile this year and that production
of the new weapon could be commissioned in 2005.
News reports have also said Russia is
believed to be developing a next-generation heavy nuclear
missile that could carry up to 10 nuclear warheads weighing
a total of 4.4 tons, compared with the Topol-M's 1.32-ton
combat payload.
Topol-Ms have been deployed in silos since
1998. The missiles have a range of about 6,000 miles and
reportedly can maneuver in ways that are difficult to
detect.
Earlier this year, a senior Defense Ministry
official was quoted as telling news agencies that Russia
had developed a weapon that could make the United States'
proposed missile-defense system useless. Details were
not given, but military analysts said the claimed new
weapon could be a hypersonic cruise missile or maneuverable
ballistic missile warheads.
The prototype weapon proved it could maneuver
so quickly as to make "any missile defense useless,"
Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the
General Staff of the Russian armed forces, told a news
conference in February of 2004.
He said that the prototype of a new hypersonic
vehicle had proved its ability to maneuver while in orbit,
thereby making it able to to dodge an enemy's missile
shield.
"The flying vehicle changed both
the altitude and direction of its flight," Baluyevsky
said. "During the experiment conducted yesterday,
we proved that it's possible to develop weapons that would
make any missile defense useless."
The United States, by contrast, is currently
unilaterally dismantling the MX Misile system, the newest
nuclear missile system in the US arsenal. The remaining
force of 500 Minuteman III missiles were de-MIRVed from
three nuclear warheads each to a single warhead each.
These 500 single warhead missiles will be the only ICBM
deterrent force through the year 2020.
TOPOL-M Mobile Missile System (below)
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