May 18, 2006 :: News
General Yuri Baluyevsky, chief of staff of the Russian Armed Forces, announced on Thursday that Russia successfully tested a new defense-penetrating missile system in February. Speaking at a news briefing in Moscow, he stated that the new system will be ready “in the nearest future.” The new warheads, designed to zigzag on their approach to targets, are to be fitted on the new mobile land-based Topol-M (SS-27) ICBM and the sea-based Bulava (SS-NX-30) SLBM currently under development. In his state-of-the-nation address last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the new high-precision weapons would allow Russia to maintain a strategic balance of forces with the U.S. even with a smaller arsenal.
At the same briefing, Baluyevsky criticized U.S. plans to deploy non-nuclear warheads on ICBMs, warning that if launched they could provoke an accidental retaliatory nuclear strike. “This may cause an irreversible reaction on the part of nuclear powers which will be unable to identify the type of missile warhead and establish whom it has been launched against,” he said. Baluyevsky noted that, although early-warning systems register all ICBM launches, they do not provide information about warhead types and possible targets.
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