Russia Test-Launches New ICBM

[Shehz]

Russia Test-Launches New ICBM ​

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070529/ap_on_re_eu/russia_missile_test

By JIM HEINTZ, Associated Press Writer

MOSCOW - Russia on Tuesday test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and a top government official said it could penetrate any defense system, a news agency reported.

The new missile would modernize Russia's stockpile at a time of rising tensions with the West.

The ICBM was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia, and its test warhead landed on target about 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, a statement from the Russian Strategic Missile Forces said.

President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly said Russia would continue to improve its nuclear weapons systems and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Europe.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said the ICBM, as well as a tactical cruise missile that also was tested Tuesday, can penetrate any missile defense system, Russian news agencies reported.

"As of today, Russia has new (missiles) that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," ITAR-Tass quoted Ivanov as saying. "So in terms of defense and security, Russian can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential candidate to succeed Putin in elections next year.

The ICBM, called the RS-24, is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of Russia's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.

The statement said the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the START-I treaty and the 2002 Moscow Treaty, which calls for reductions in each country's nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,000 warheads.

The RS-24 "strengthens the capability of the attack groups of the Strategic Missile Forces by surmounting anti-missile defense systems, at the same time strengthening the potential for nuclear deterrence," the statement said.

The statement did not specify how many warheads the missile can carry.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that that can carry multiple independent warheads, ITAR-Tass reported.

The first Topol-Ms were commissioned in 1997, but deployment has proceeded slower than planned because of a shortage of funds, and aging Soviet-built ballistic missiles remain the backbone of Russia's nuclear forces. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.

Alexander Golts, a respected military analyst with the Yezhenedelny Zhurnal online publication, expressed surprise at the announcement. "It seems to be a brand new missile. It's either a decoy or something that has been developed in complete secrecy," he told The Associated Press.

The new missile would probably be more capable of penetrating missile defense systems than previous models, according to Alexander Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations.

He said its development was probably "inevitable" after the U.S. withdrew from the Soviet-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 in order to deploy a national missile defense shield.

Russia adamantly opposes U.S. efforts to deploy elements of a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic. The United States says the system is aimed at blocking possible attacks by countries such as North Korea and Iran, but Russia says the system would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

Russia's military chief of staff has suggested repeatedly that Russia would regard elements of the system as potential targets.

Asked about the controversy Tuesday at a news conference with Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, Putin said, "We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg."

On Monday, Russia called for an emergency conference next month on a key Soviet-era arms control treaty that has been a source of increasing friction between Moscow and NATO.

The call for a conference on the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty follows last month's statement from Putin declaring a moratorium on observing Russia's obligations under the treaty.

The treaty, which limits the number of aircraft, tanks and other non-nuclear heavy weapons around Europe, was first signed in 1990 and then amended in 1999 to reflect changes since the Soviet breakup. Russia has ratified the amended version, but the United States and other NATO members have refused to do so until Moscow withdraws troops from the former Soviet republics of Moldova and Georgia — an issue Moscow says is unrelated.

Putin warned that Russia could dump the treaty altogether if Western nations refuse to ratify its amended version, and the Foreign Ministry said Monday that it lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna, Austria, on June 12-15.

 

[Shehz]

Courtesy - http://www.mosnews.com/news/2005/11/02/topollaunch.shtml

 

[Cheetah786]

Advanced cruise missiles successfully tested in Russia - Ivanov
ZNAMENSK (Astrakhan region). May 29 (Interfax-AVN) - Advanced strategic and tactical cruise missiles that are immune to all existing and future missile defense systems have been successfully tested in Russia, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov told journalists in Znamensk on Tuesday.

"These complexes are capable of overcoming all existing and future missile defense systems. That is why, from the point of view of defense and security, Russians can look into the future without any worriers," he said.
http://www.interfax.ru/e/B/0/28.html?id_issue=11757311

 

[genmirajborgza786]

THE LATEST ON THIS


·Putin: U.S. anti-ballistic missile plans in Europe is turning the continent into a tinderbox.
·Putin accused NATO members of failing to ratify an arms control treaty in Europe.
·Putin and visiting Portuguese Prime Minister hailed Russian-Portuguese ties.
MOSCOW, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Tuesday that the planned deployment of United States anti-ballistic missile components in Europe "is turning the continent into a tinderbox."

Putin made the remarks when talking with visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

He also criticized NATO members, accusing them of failing to ratify an arms control treaty in Europe although Russia has ratified it. The president has said he was suspending Russia's obligation to the treaty during his state of the nation speech last month.

"It is a question of their unwillingness to ratify the adapted Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern Europe." Itar-Tass quoted Putin as saying.

Putin said he hoped that Russia-European relations will improve when Portugal holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union in the latter half of this year.

The two leaders hailed Russian-Portuguese ties and pledged to enhance economic cooperation. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 26 percent year on year to about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2006.

Russia tests new intercontinental missile

Russia successfully test-launched a new intercontinental ballistic missile on Tuesday, in the middle of a row with the United States, which plans to deploy components of its anti-ballistic missile system in central Europe.

The RS-24 missile blasted off from the Plesetsk space center about 800 km (500 miles) north of Moscow at 14:20 Moscow time (1020 GMT) and hit the target in Kamchatka, about 6,000 km away in the Far East, the Itar-Tass, Interfax and RIA news agencies reported.

When equipped with several independently targeted re-entry warheads, the missile can pierce through missile defense systems and would enhance Russia's potential nuclear deterrent when deployed, Russian strategic missile forces spokesman Vadim Koval was quoted as saying.

The United States plans to deploy missile interceptors in Poland and radar units in the Czech Republic as part of a project to extend the missile defense system in Europe. Russia has voiced strong opposition over the plan.


U.S. reiterates call for Russia's co-op on missile defense

WASHINGTON, May 29 (Xinhua) -- The United States repeated Tuesday its call for Russia to cooperate on missile defense issues, saying the U.S. missile defense plan can not be construed as a threat to Russia's strategic capability. Full story

Putin condemns U.S. missile defense system in E Europe

VIENNA, May 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday condemned the U.S. missile defense system in eastern Europe as "fatal, harmful and groundless" during his visit to Austria. Full story

U.S. says missile defense shield poses no threat to Russia

WASHINGTON, May 23 (Xinhua) -- The United States said Wednesday that a planned missile defense shield in Eastern Europe will pose no threat to Russia and wants to work with Russia on the issue. Full story



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[genmirajborgza786]

Daily Times - Site Edition Wednesday, May 30, 2007


US shield makes Europe ‘powder keg’: Putin

MOSCOW/BERLIN: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday the deployment of a US missile shield in Europe would turn the continent into “a powder keg”.

“We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to stuff it with new weapons,” Putin told visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates at the Kremlin.

“It creates new and unnecessary risks for the whole system of international and European relations,” he told Socrates, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency on July 1.

The United States says the shield is needed to protect against missile attacks from what it calls rogue states such as Iran and North Korea.

It wants to place elements of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia has strongly opposed the project as a threat to its national security.

Meanwhile, the leader of Germany’s Social Democrats called on Tuesday for a renewed commitment to global disarmament and said the United States must be ready to consider abandoning its planned missile defence shield in central Europe.

Kurt Beck, whose SPD governs in a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives, wrote in an editorial for the International Herald Tribune newspaper that US plans to deploy a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic would not counter the real threat from terrorism.

“The consultation processes within NATO and in the NATO-Russia Council must be extended,” wrote Beck, the SPD’s most likely candidate for chancellor in Germany’s next scheduled parliamentary election in 2009.

“That means not only informing the members of these organisations about one’s own plans but also entertaining a willingness to abandon them if necessary.

“There is a need ... for joint consultation on whether such a missile defence system is really needed,” he said in the editorial, published just over a week before Merkel hosts the Group of Eight (G8) leaders for a summit.

He said that relations between Russia and the West had been harmed by the missile shield plans, while questions had been raised over whether the project, which has cost Washington $100 billion so far, will actually work.

Instead, world leaders should renew their commitment to disarmament, said Beck, striking a chord which is likely to resonate with left-wing German voters who oppose armaments. reuters

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[genmirajborgza786]

Russia says new missiles can penetrate any defense system; Putin warns against U.S. missile shield

By: STEVE GUTTERMAN - Associated Press

MOSCOW -- Russia tested new missiles Tuesday that a Kremlin official boasted could penetrate any defense system, and President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans for an anti-missile shield in Europe would turn the region into a "powder keg."

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independent warheads, and it also successfully conducted a "preliminary" test of a tactical cruise missile that he said could fly farther than existing, similar weapons.

"As of today, Russia has new tactical and strategic complexes that are capable of overcoming any existing or future missile defense systems," Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. "So in terms of defense and security, Russians can look calmly to the country's future."

Ivanov is a former defense minister seen as a potential Kremlin favorite to succeed Putin next year. Both he and Putin have said repeatedly that Russia would continue to improve its nuclear arsenals and respond to U.S. plans to deploy a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic -- NATO nations that were in Moscow's front yard during the Cold War as Warsaw Pact members.

Russia has bristled at the plans, dismissing U.S. assertions that the system would be aimed at blocking possible attacks by Iran and saying it would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to fill it with new kinds of weapons," Putin said at a news conference with visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates.

Russian arms control expert Alexander Pikayev said the new ICBMs appeared to be part of Russia's promised response to the missile defense plans and, more broadly, an effort to "strengthen the strategic nuclear triad -- land-based, sea-based and air-based delivery systems for nuclear weapons -- which suffered significant downsizing" amid financial troubles after the 1991 Soviet collapse.

The ICBM, called the RS-24, was fired from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk launch site in northwestern Russia. Its test warhead landed on target some 3,400 miles away on the Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, the Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement.

The new missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.

The RS-24 "strengthens the capability of the attack groups of the Strategic Missile Forces by surmounting anti-missile defense systems, at the same time strengthening the potential for nuclear deterrence," the statement said.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first commissioned in 1997 and known as the SS-27 in the West, but one that that can carry multiple independent warheads, ITAR-Tass reported. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.

Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations, said that little had been revealed about the missile's development, but that Russia has been seeking to improve its capability to penetrate missile defense systems and that the new missile would likely answer to that goal.

He said Russia had been working on a version of the Topol-M that could carry MIRVs -- Multiple Independently Targetable Re-entry Vehicles -- and that its development was probably "inevitable" after the U.S. withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002 in order to develop a national missile defense.

Pikayev concurred with the missile forces' statement that the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the START-I treaty, which is in force, and the 2002 Moscow Treaty, which calls for reductions in each country's nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,000 warheads.

Ivanov also announced the successful "preliminary" test of an improved tactical cruise missile designed for a mobile Iskander-M launcher, ITAR-Tass reported. Ivanov said last year that Russian ground forces would commission 60 short-range Iskander-M missiles by 2015.

While Ivanov's saber-rattling about missile defense penetration was clearly aimed at the United States -- and at Russians who will vote in March for a successor to Putin -- he suggested Russia's armament efforts were also aimed to counter a potential treat from the Middle East and Asia.

"We see perfectly how our eastern and southern neighbors here, there and everywhere are acquiring short and medium-range missiles," Ivanov said in televised comments at Kapustin Yar, the southern Russian site where the tactical missiles were tested.

Ivanov said the 1987 Soviet-American treaty limiting such missiles -- the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty, or INF -- is no longer effective because "dozens of countries -- many of them along our borders -- have acquired them. All of this is a real danger for us, and the consequences can be unpredictable."

He emphasized the need to equip the armed forces with "the most modern, precise weapons" and suggested Russia could arm itself with missiles whose range exceeds the lower limit of 310 miles set in the INF. The ranges of Russia's missiles are "for now within the commitments that Russia has taken upon itself, but I stress: for now," ITAR-Tass quoted him as saying.

Matthew Bunn, a senior research associate at Harvard University's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, said the missile test was "in line with Russia's renewed emphasis in recent years of maintaining their weapons systems after years of decline."

Bunn said he did not think the Russians had planned the test as a reaction to U.S. plans to deploy the missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, although they may have worded Tuesday's announcement to make it appear that way.

"I think if anything, the wording of the announcement may have been changed to emphasize the missile's ability to evade defense systems, but the test was probably planned way before," Bunn said.

Andrew Kuchins, director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the test was Russia's way of showing the U.S. and its own people that it was investing more in national security.

"The Russians have been talking about developing and testing new weapons for years now, so this isn't a surprise. They have a very aging nuclear missile structure and this test fits in with a broader trend of upgrading security," said Kuchins.

"After years of spending little on their military, they're now showing us and showing the Russian population that they're paying more attention to defense."

Russia is also embroiled in a dispute with the West over another Soviet-era arms pact, the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.

Putin has announced a moratorium on observance of the treaty and threatened to withdraw altogether if the United States and other NATO members do not ratify an 1999 amended version.

Russia said Monday that it lodged a formal request for a conference among treaty signatories in Vienna next week.

Associated Press Writer Lily Hindy in New York contributed to this report.

http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2007/05/30/news/nation/15_28_275_29_07.prt

 

[genmirajborgza786]

Russia tests missile to penetrate U.S. shield
Reuters, The Associated PressPublished: May 29, 2007

MOSCOW: Russia on Tuesday tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that it said could break through any antimissile defense system, and President Vladimir Putin stepped up his attacks on the proposed U.S. shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying its deployment in Europe would turn the Continent into "a powder keg."

The United States says the system is aimed at blocking possible attacks by countries such as North Korea and Iran, and that Russia could easily overwhelm such a shield with its huge missile force, but Moscow says the system would destroy the strategic balance of forces in Europe.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to stuff it with new weapons," Putin said at a press conference with Prime Minister José Sócrates of Portugal, which assumes the European Union's rotating presidency on July 1. "It creates new and unnecessary risks for the whole system of international and European relations."

Russian military experts said the new missile was part of the "highly effective response" promised earlier this year by Putin to the shield.

"It can overcome any potential entire missile defense systems developed by foreign countries," Colonel General Viktor Yesin told the official Russian Today television channel.

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A government spokesman said the RS-24 missile was fired Tuesday morning from a mobile launcher from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, about 800 kilometers, or 500 miles, north of Moscow.

Less than an hour later, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces command said the missile had hit its targets at the Kura test site on the sparsely inhabited far eastern peninsula of Kamchatka to the north of Japan.

"The RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile will strengthen the military potential of Russia's strategic rocket forces to overcome antimissile defense systems and thereby strengthen the potential nuclear deterrent of Russia's strategic nuclear forces," the Strategic Missile Forces command said in a statement.

Putin issued his latest broadside against the shield after meeting with Sócrates at the Kremlin on Tuesday. Putin also said he hoped relations with the European Union would improve when its rotating presidency moves from Germany to Portugal, and accused the West of double standards on human rights and used colorful language to make a point about a dispute that has blocked talks on a new partnership deal with the European Union.

His remarks echoed a prickly exchange at the Russia-EU summit meeting earlier this month in the Volga River city of Samara, where EU leaders, including Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, questioned Russia's treatment of opponents and Putin said such criticism was a two-way street.

"The death penalty in certain Western countries, secret prisons and torture in Europe, problems with the media in certain European countries, immigration laws in certain European states that don't correspond with the norms of international law - are those also common values?" Putin asked.

"So we won't say we are dealing with white and fuzzy creatures on one side and with monsters who have just come out of the forest and have hooves on the other," he said.

Putin said that Russia's relations with Portugal were "developing very successfully" and suggested that Portugal's EU presidency, which begins July 1, could bring progress in strained ties between Moscow and the EU.

"We are hoping that when Portugal chairs the EU, a new impulse will be given to Russia's relations with its European partners," Putin said during a Kremlin meeting that included members of a large Portuguese delegation.

First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking separately from Putin, said the deployment of medium- and short-range missiles by Russia's neighbours to the east and south now posed a "real threat." He said Russia had also successfully tested a tactical cruise missile.

The U.S.-Soviet treaty on intermediate nuclear forces is not effective, Ivanov told a military-industrial commission in the southern city of Znamensk, because since its signing "scores of countries have appeared that have such missiles while Russia and the United States are not allowed to have them."

"In these conditions, it is necessary to provide our troops with modern, high-precision weapons."

Ivanov, a former defense minister and leading hawk, is widely seen as a front-runner to succeed Putin in the presidential election next March, although he has not said whether he will run.

The new missile is seen as eventually replacing the aging RS-18s and RS-20s that are the backbone of the country's missile forces, the statement said. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.

Ivanov said the missile was a new version of the Topol-M, first known as the SS-27 in the West, modified to carry multiple-independent warheads, Itar-Tass reported.

 

[genmirajborgza786]

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The first Topol-Ms were commissioned in 1997, but deployment has proceeded slower than planned because of a shortage of funds. Existing Topol-M missiles are capable of hitting targets more than 10,000 kilometers away.

Missiles carrying multiple independently targeted warheads are more difficult to intercept and destroy completely once they have been fired, making them much harder to defend against.

The new missile would likely be more capable of penetrating missile defense systems than previous models, said Alexander Pikayev, an arms control expert at the Moscow-based Institute for World Economy and International Relations.

He said Russia had been working on a version of the Topol-M that could carry multiple warheads, and that its development was probably "inevitable" after the U.S. withdrew from the Soviet-era Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty in 2002, preventing the Start II treaty from coming into force.

Pikayev concurred with the Russian position that the RS-24 conforms with terms laid down in the Start I treaty, which is in force, and the 2002 Moscow Treaty, which calls for reductions in each country's nuclear arsenal to 1,700-2,000 warheads.

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/29/news/shield.php?page=2

 

[EagleEyes]

What the heck is going on with the defence shield behind the scenes is something i am wondering for a while. U.S. says that it will provide coverage against Iran and North Korea, but seems unrealistics since Russia is being bothered by and Iran doesn't have the capability.

 

[Interceptor]

Yep as predicted,
https://defence.pk/forums/showthread.php?t=4954

 

[BATMAN]

US shield makes Europe 'powder keg', Putin says
Published Date: May 30, 2007
http://www.kuwaittimes.net/read_news.php?newsid=MTg5MTU3NDQ0

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin said yesterday the deployment of a US missile shield in Europe would turn the continent into "a powder keg". "We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a powder keg and to stuff it with new weapons," Putin told visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates at the Kremlin. "It creates new and unnecessary risks for the whole system of international and European relations," he told Socrates, whose country takes over the rotating EU presidency on July 1. The United States says the shield is needed to protect against missile attacks from what it calls rogue states such as Iran and North Korea. It wants to place elements of the shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia has strongly opposed the project as a threat to its national security.

The leader of the Socialist group in the European Parliament attacked the US plan to build a missile shield in Europe as "complete nonsense" yesterday. Martin Schultz said his party had found common cause with Russia over its opposition to the shield after a delegation met a foreign policy aide of President Vladimir Putin in Moscow. "I was able to understand the Russian sentiments on this, it is complete nonsense. It is our common evaluation of this situation," Schultz told a news conference after meeting Putin's adviser on European Union relations, Sergei Yastrzhembsky.

The United States says it wants to locate elements of a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic to protect from missile attacks by what it calls "rogue states". Russia has said the plan is a threat to its national security. Politicians in some European countries, including members of NATO, have also expressed their misgivings. The leader of Germany's Social Democrats, which govern in a grand coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, said in a newspaper interview yesterday the United States must be ready to consider abandoning the shield plan.

Schultz and his colleagues said their decision to oppose the missile shield was taken independent of Russia's position. He leads a group of 218 MEPS from 25 countries in the 785-seat parliament. Schultz headed a delegation of 10 MEPs for preliminary talks in Moscow on establishing co-operation with the pro-Kremlin left-of-centre 'Just Russia' political party. Schultz criticized police crackdowns in past weeks on anti-Kremlin protesters in Russia and said police failed to protect gay rights activists from nationalists who kicked and punched them during a weekend protest. He described the police behavior as an "inappropriate reaction" towards legitimate demonstrators. - Agencies