Second Battery of S-400 Interceptors to be Deployed in Moscow in 2008
January 22, 2008 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
Colonel-General Yuri Solovyov, head of Russia’s Air Force Special Command, announced on January 21 that a second S-400 Triumf regiment would be deployed in the Moscow region “by the end of 2008.” The first regiment was deployed after a successful test of the S-400 last year.
The S-400 is designed to defend against ballistic and cruise missiles and stealth aircraft at a distance of up to 400 kilometers, said to be twice the range of the U.S. Patriot interceptor. The Colonel-General added that he wanted to expand the S-400's capabilities to intercept targets at even higher altitudes. "We already have new missiles for the S-400 anti-aircraft system. These are surface-to-air missiles. We also need high-altitude missiles that can destroy targets in near space," he said. The S-400 will constitute the backbone of Russia’s theater air and missile defenses until 2020 or 2025. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Russian Missile Defenses
» Missile system details for: S-400 (SA-20 Triumf)
Russia Successfully Tests New RS-24 ICBM
December 25, 2007 :: AP :: News
Russia's Strategic Missile Forces announced the successful test of the new RS-24 ballistic missile on December 25. The missile was launched from the Plestsk facility in northern Russia and destroyed targets on the Kura testing range located on the Kamchatka Peninsula. Said to be based on the Topol-M, the RS-24 is designed to replace aging Soviet-era missiles such as the RS-18 and the RS-20 (known as the SS-19 and SS-18 in the West). Interfax reports that the RS-24 missile can carry up to three warheads. The Strategic Missile Forces's statement declared, "The RS-24's deployment will strengthen the Strategic Missile Forces' capability to penetrate missile defense systems and strengthen the nuclear deterrent potential of Russia's strategic nuclear forces...The RS-24 will form the backbone of the Strategic Missile Forces and safely ensure the security of Russia and its allies through the mid-century." (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: RS-24, SS-27
Russia: SS-21 Scarab Missiles Test Fired
November 28, 2007 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
The November 28 edition of RIA Novosti reports that a Russian missile brigade from Siberia test fired two SS-21 Scarab short range ballistic missiles in the Kapustin Yar testing range. The SS-21 or Scarab, also referred to as the "Tochka-U" in Russia, is a single-warhead, road-mobile ballistic missile. Russia is phasing out the SS-21 missiles, which it has used since 1976, and replacing them with the new Iskander-M missiles (SS-26/Stone) which carry multiple warheads. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: SS-21 A, SS-21 B
Russia Responds to U.S. Offer on Missile Defense
November 23, 2007 :: News
Recent American proposals have been sent to Russia concerning the Poland and Czech Republic missile defense sites. The American proposals included a "delay[ed] activation of the missile defence system until Washington and Moscow were in agreement on 'definitive proof' of missile threats from Iran or elsewhere...[and] a plan to station Russian liaison officers at proposed US missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, as long as the host countries agreed to this."
Itar Tass reports that Russia is however dissatisfied with these U.S. proposals. An unnamed Foreign Ministry source is quoted as saying, "They have sent concrete proposals. We are continuing to study them, but our first impression is that they do not meet our expectations. This is not what was promised orally [in recent talks with Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates]." The comments contrast sharply with Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments from November 22, in which he said, "our concerns are being listened to." Russia opposes the current U.S. plan to base ten Ground Based Interceptors in Poland and an X-band radar in the Czech Republic. Moscow believes the missile defense system is meant to diminish its nuclear strategic deterrent and not, as the U.S. claims, to defend against possible missile attacks from the Middle East. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: European Missile Defenses, Russia
Russia May Deploy Iskander Missiles to Belarus, Could Boost Range in Excess of INF Treaty Limits
November 15, 2007 :: Itar-Tass :: News
As reported by the Russian news service Itar-Tass, on November 14 Major-General Vladimir Zaritsky, head of Russia's artillery and missile forces, said Russia may deploy its newest Iskander missiles in Belarus as a response to the U.S.'s plan to place a limited missile defense system in Eastern Europe. There are two versions of the Iskander, the Iskander-E (which has been exported to many countries), and the Tender, which is for use by the Russian military. The domestic version for the Russian military has a longer range.
Zaritsky said that the Iskanders were currently in-line with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty of 1987, but emphasized that "Should Russia take a political decision to quit the INF treaty, we will boost the military capabilities of these missiles, including their range." Asked whether Russia may eventually increase Iskander's range in excess of the 500 km limit of the INF treaty, Zaritsky responded: "Who knows what the motherland may order?" (Article, Link)
» No Russian Medium-Range Missiles to be Deployed in Belarus
» More stories on: Russia
» Missile details: SS-26
Russia Tests SS-19 Missile
October 29, 2007 :: Spacewar.com :: News
Russia test fired an RS-18 (SS-19) intercontinental ballistic missile October 29 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in neighboring Kazakhstan, Russian news agencies reported. The missile's warhead successfully traveled eastward to the missile testing ground on the Kamchatka peninsula. The test was intended to check the continued effectiveness of the missile's flight systems. The RS-18s are specially equipped to overcome missile defense systems. The Itar-Tass news agency notes that Russia has some 160 of the SS-19 missile, and that they are equipped with countermeasures to resist American missile defense systems. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile details: SS-19 Mod 1, SS-19 Mod 2
Russia Launches SS-25 Topol Missile
October 18, 2007 :: RIA-Novosti :: News
On October 18, Russia reported that it had successfully test-fired an RS-12 Topol (SS-25) intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk space center. The warhead aboard the missile traveled successfully to its target at the testing grounds located on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula. In service since 1988, the RS-12 is a road-mobile single-warhead ICBM, similar in size and shape to the U.S. Minuteman ICBM. The launch from the space center in north Russia had been conducted to assess the possibility of extending the ten year long service life of Topol missiles. The missile will be replaced over the coming decade by a mobile version of the Topol-M (SS-27) missile, which can carry up to six nuclear warheads. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Testing - Foreign, Russia
Russia Tests Gazelle Missile Interceptor
October 13, 2007 :: News
Russia reports the successful test of a missile defense interceptor from the Sary Shagan test site on on Lake Balkash in Kazakhstan, according to Space Forces spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin. Zolotukhin said that the test launch of a Gazelle interceptor was made to assess extending the service life of the A-135 missile defense system which has long been deployed around Moscow.
"A combined team of the Space Forces, the Sary Shagan testing site and industry officials fired a short-range interceptor missile at a target missile," said Zolotukhin. According to the same report, the Sary Shagan site "recently has experienced a spate of testing by the Russian Strategic Missile Forces, which have tested six anti-missile systems, 12 air defence systems, seven types of missile interceptors, 12 types of ground-to-air missiles and 18 radars at the site." (Article, Link)
» Additional report of Russian interceptor test
» More stories on: Russian Missile Defenses, Russia, Testing - Foreign
» Missile system details for: System A-135, Gazelle (SH-08/ABM-3)
Oberg on the Weaponization of Space
October 9, 2007 :: The Space Review :: Analysis
James Oberg writes on the weaponization of space in the October 9 edition of The Space Review. Oberg reacts to the clear media bias against U.S. space programs, and charges that the media further encourages inflammatory Russian remarks about having to match the U.S. military presence in space. Oberg argues:
Like children drawing glee in poking a stick into an anthill to see the turmoil they can cause, or teenagers throwing rocks at a chained junkyard dog just to hear him snarl, some elements of the Western news media seem to evince diabolical delight in seeing just how they can inflame good old fashioned Russian paranoia about "enemy threats", especially from the United States. Regardless of the rationale, such exercises leave measurable scars on the international diplomatic scene. ...
To fabricate and encourage Russian fears of the imminent American "weaponization of space", then, isn't merely a matter of politically useful alarmism and ideologically satisfying posturing. To the degree that it reinforces Russian fears and encourages Russian militaristic responses, it is downright dangerous and irresponsible. Shame on the space-war fear mongers: they are part of the problem, not part of the solution, which is accuracy.
Most recently, articles in the New York Times recognizing the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik cited that the Soviet satellite motivated Eisenhower to enter a "scary new world of space arms" by "publicly encouraged peaceful uses of space even while spending billions to explore futuristic weaponry like death rays fired from rocket ships." Oberg argues that the article ignores the most important details of Eisenhower's space policy, such as "deliberately assign[ing] America's satellite project to a research rocket rather than a weapons rocket... and establish[ing] a civilian-controlled space exploration administration (something the Soviets never did)." Also, the New York Times's article omits critical information about the Soviet's history in space.
Not discussed here are the orbital thermonuclear weapons designed, tested, and deployed by the USSR in the 1960s, whose operation was expressly forbidden by the Outer Space Treaty of 1967-a scrap of paper that provided no protection to their use in a sneak attack on the United States. Not mentioned... are the handguns that the Russians are allowed to pack at the International Space Station (NASA's website doesn't mention them either), or the much more serious space-to-space attack vehicles (on standby in earth-based launch tubes) whose very existence Moscow denied for decades.
The revisionist perspective of history has a profound effect today, as the U.S. deploys the first components of a missile defense system, and considers future space-based components. The Russian government, supported by the U.S. media, has hitherto condemned these efforts as sparking a new weaponization of space. Russian Colonel General Vladimir Popovkin recently claimed Russia would "not allow any other country to play the master in outer space. The consequences of positioning strike forces in orbit will be too serious." Once again, the facts of the planned space system are ignored, Oberg suggests: "Proposed space-based anti-missile systems will be designed with guidance sensors that depend on hot rocket exhausts and large missile skins, the sort of thing you'd see during an actual launch. Satellites orbiting passively high above Earth are not nearly as big as missiles, and are nowhere near as hot. They usually aren't firing rocket engines at all. Anti-missile systems of the type under consideration probably could not even detect such targets, much less hit them." (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Analysis, Russia, Space-Based Systems
Obering: Dependence on Radar in Azerbaijan Would be Inadequate
September 18, 2007 :: News
On September 18 a delegation of U.S. missile defense experts toured the Russian Gabala radar facility in Azerbaijan. A current U.S. plan to house ten Ground Based Interceptors in Poland and an X-band radar in the Czech Republic as part of a limited missile defense system has angered Russia, which believes it is intended to challenge its own nuclear deterrent and fears the proximity of the system to its border. Russian President Vladimir Putin offered a counter-proposal in July that would allow the U.S. to share the use of its radar facility in Azerbaijan instead of building one in the Czech Republic. However, the director of the Missile Defense Agency, Lieutenant General Henry Obering, stated that "we do not anticipate, and cannot see, that what they are proposing can take the place for what we are proposing for Poland and the Czech Republic." Obering added, that based on current assessments of the Russian system, it is "not capable of performing the functions" of the radar proposed for the Czech Republic. The Russian radar in Azerbaijan has a broad view of the horizon and is useful for early warning, while the system proposed for the Czech Republic is designed to have a quite narrow view, but one that is very detailed and exact, as required for tracking and targeting individual missiles. The Russian system could be useful as a way to alert the rest of the missile-defense system in Europe to a missile attack but the Russians have maintained that the Gabala radar facility is intended to be an alternative to the U.S. plan and not a supplement. (Article, Link)
» More stories on: Russia, NATO
