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Russia Reveals New Missile Threat
Russia revealed Monday it was fitting its strategic bombers with cruise missiles - capable of delivering massive precision strikes thousands of kilometers away - giving the first clear hint of its post-Cold War military strategy. "Russia's long-range air force finally has a new weapon," the government's Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily announced in a headline. "We now have a strategic cruise missile with a non-nuclear warhead," the paper wrote "We have broken the US monopoly on the use long-range conventional cruise missiles," an unnamed senior air force commander told ITAR-TASS. The technology appears to be similar to cruise missiles that the United States has long attached to its own intercontinental bombers like the B-2 Stealth bomber. The announcement followed months of cryptic statements from President Vladimir Putin and his top generals that Russia was developing a new missile program that is a step ahead of any Western rivals - including technology developed by the United States. Putin declared last month that Russia had "conducted tests of the latest nuclear rocket systems" in a cryptic comment that puzzled military strategists but seemed aimed at Washington and its mooted missile defense shield that Moscow considers illegal. Russia has been developing a range of new missiles capable of penetrating US defenses as a result. Generals announced earlier this year the successful tests of a hypersonic intercontinental missile that has no officially-confirmed rival in the United States. Moscow is also believed to be developing a multi-stage intercontinental ballistic missile that uses cruise missile technology to zigzag and avoid being shot down once it re-enters the earth's atmosphere. Finally Russia announced that it was making its most feared and powerful trans-Atlantic missile mobile within the next two years. But the latest technology announced Monday would see old Soviet-era conventional missiles be carried by strategic bombers with a global range. The Russian government daily said tests of the new system were being conducted in military exercises now under way in southern Russia. "This year, our strategic Tu-160 and Tu-95s bombers have been equipped with new non-nuclear precision weapons," ITAR-TASS quoted an unnamed Russian air force general as saying. "These cruise missiles have a range of more than 3,000 kilometersmiles) and can miss a target by no more than a few meters while carrying a warhead of hundreds of kilotons," the source said. The report failed to specify the type of missile being used. The bombers currently carry an intercontinental ballistic missile called X-55 (AS-15 Kent according to Western classification) that was first deployed in 1983. But Russian news reports said at least some of the planes will now be re-equipped with a new smaller missile which in Russian is called OFAB-500 and which carries a massive cluster bomb weighing 515 kilograms (1,130 pounds). The pudgy weapon only has a top speed of 1,200 kilometers (720 miles) an hour but would be launched from bombers that can reach any spot on earth. A military source told ITAR-TASS the first Tu-160 has been equipped with 45 tons of bombs - or about 90 missiles. "These new cruise missiles are a very precise weapon," the Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star) official defense ministry newspaper wrote. "The crew will be capable of delivering, as they say, a 'present' through an open window," the paper said. However the Russian government daily pointed out that Moscow has a long way to go before it can catch up with Washington. Rossiyskaya Gazeta estimated said the United States now has 5,000 non-nuclear-tipped cruise missiles with up to 700 of them attached to global B-52 and B-2 bombers. The unnamed general told ITAR-TASS that Russia's technology was primarily aimed for "anti-terrorist operations" rather than a major war. All rights reserved. � 2004 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse. Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Pacifist Japan To Study Developing First Long-Range Missile: Report Tokyo (AFP) Dec 03, 2004 Pacifist Japan will study developing its first long-range surface-to-surface missile amid growing concern about neighbors North Korea and China, a report said last Friday. The potential new missiles could effectively end Japan's self-imposed ban on offensive weapons, two months after an expert panel recommended the country acquire the ability to attack foreign bases.
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