August 27, 2004 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
Testing for a new Iskander missile has been completed, reports the Russian news agency, RIA Novosti.
President Putin is said to have asked Russian Minister of Defense Sergei Ivanov if the missile can be deployed quickly. Ivanov replied that it could be. Similar news reports suggest that the military may adopt the missile in 2005.
The relation of the “new” missile is unclear, however, to the much older SS-X-26 known as “Stone,” “Tender,” and “Iskander-E” (the export version, already marketed to a number of countries, including Syria and Iran). As noted in the 2001 National Intelligence Estimate on the foreign ballistic missile threat, the SS-21 (Tochka) and the SS-26 (Iskander) have both already been serving Russia well for its short range nuclear arsenal: “The SS-21 and SS-26 SRBMs provide Russian general-purpose ground forces with a rapid, precision-guided, theater deep-strike capability.” There was a report in October 2003, however, that the SS-26 Iskander missile was undergoing improvements.
The new Iskander is said to be capable of carrying either a nuclear or a conventional warhead. It was also described as a successor to the SS-21B “Tochka-U.” Unlike Tochka, however, the new Iskander system is said to have two missiles rather than one.
Channel One TV in Moscow gave a few more details of Iskander missile, which is describes as a “new generation weapon,” a “closely guarded secret,” and employing “stealth technology.”
Also of interest are the potential targets listed for the missile. These are said to include “missile systems, long-range artillery, aircraft at airfields, air defence and anti-missile defence systems and communications control centres” (emphasis added). The broadcast continued to say that “the system’s specifications show that the promising American air defence missile system, Patriot, will be unable to match Iskander.”
Could the Iskander be designed to destroy deployments of Patriot batteries? If so, marketing it to Syria and Iran would seem to indicate a clear purpose of negating America’s own attempts to counter the menace of those countries’ ballistic missile arsenals.
Moscow television news report also included a list of the missile’s characteristics:
Flight range: 280 km; Launch weight of missile: 3,800 kg; Warhead mass: 480 kg; Warhead type: cluster (54 submunitions), fragmentation-high explosive, penetrating; Number of missiles on launcher: two
The payload weight of 480kg would correspond to the previously known weights of the SS-X-26, but the reported range could indicate slight differences. Minister Ivanov is quoted as saying that the new Iskander has an effective range of up to 300 km, while also noting that it is a “high-precision missile.” Moreover, versions of the older Iskander had a range of between 280 (export version) and 400 km (Russian version). (Article)
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