The motherland is in danger!
Posted on 12/15/2006 9:29:05 AM PST by Ernest_at_the_Beach
MOSCOW (AP) - Russia will replace single nuclear warheads on some of its strategic missiles with multiple warheads, Russian news agencies reported Friday, allowing Moscow to modernize its nuclear arsenal while building fewer new missiles - and spending less.
In theory, the shift would also make it easier for Russian nuclear weapons to evade a U.S. missile defense system.
"In the near future we will begin to substitute the single warheads on Topol-M intercontinental missiles with multiple warheads," the Interfax-Military News Agency quoted Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces, as saying Friday.
"This makes the task of replacing aging missiles much easier," said Alexander Pikayev, a Moscow-based defense analyst who is co-chair of the Committee of Scientists for Global Security.
On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin said the deployment of Topol-M missiles on mobile launchers was a "serious step forward in strengthening Russia's defense capability."
Capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away, the Topol-M missiles have so far been deployed only in silos. The mobile version of the missile, mounted on an off-road vehicle, is harder to locate and destroy.
The United States has not deployed similar mobile launch systems, but it has better access to oceans and can concentrate its nuclear missiles in submarines, Pikayev said.
Johns Isaacs, executive director of the Council for a Livable World in Washington, said Friday that the deployment would not change the strategic balance between Russian and U.S. nuclear arsenals.
"It's a reflection that the Russians as well as the Americans continue to update their forces with weapons they won't use and don't need," Isaacs said. "Adding a few more here or there is not going to make any difference in the balance of power, the state of the world, peace on earth, or good will toward men."
During the economic shocks of the 1990s, Russia was slow to modernize its nuclear weapons systems.
The military has commissioned just over 40 of the Topol-M missiles since 1997, and aging Soviet-era missiles form the backbone of the nation's nuclear capability.
In 2002, Putin and President Bush signed a treaty obliging both sides to cut the number of strategic nuclear weapons by about two-thirds by 2012, down to between 1,700 and 2,200 missiles each.
When the treaty was signed, many analysts said the number of Russian nuclear weapons could fall far below the number set by the treaty.
However, the recent oil boom allowed the Kremlin to increase military spending and speed modernization.
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Associated Press writer Judith Ingram contributed to this story.
FYI
MIRVs? Isn't that in violation of the START treaty? Time to MIRV-up our LGM-30 Minuteman ICBM force in response.
Meanwhile the US has it's head in the sand and continues to send capital and technology transfers to Russia and China.
Patsies we are.
That's what I was thinking.
Interesting that when we nullify a treaty, we announce our plans well in advance, as with ABM. When they do the same thing, they announce some sneaky little near fait accompli. What about the rest of START?
This might be an indication of how worried they are of our anti-missle capability.
Has anyone ever seen a Russian missile fly in a test or do they all blow up on the launch pad? I've only seen video U.S. missile tests.
"Well, boys, I reckon this is it: nuclear combat, toe-to-toe with the Ruskies."
Start2 accord was about te be signed in 1999. yet Clinton attacked Serbia, and Russians just walked-out with question: "What, are we next?"
Attack on Serbia started on march 24th, and within days, on April 2nd, Duma, postponded Start2
Yet, on May 4th:
May 4, 2000: Putin signs the resolution of ratification for START II and its extension protocol. The legislation makes exchange of the instruments of ratification (required to bring the treaty into force) contingent on U.S. ratification of the 1997 extension proto- col and ABM-related agreements.
But:
December 13, 2001: U.S. President George W. Bush issues a six- month notice to withdraw from the ABM Treaty, stating, “I have concluded the ABM Treaty hinders our government’s ability to develop ways to protect our people from future terrorist or rogue- state missile attacks.”
Finaly:
June 13, 2002: U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty takes effect
Followed by:
June 14, 2002: Russian President Vladimir Putin declares that Russia is no longer bound by its signature of START II, ending his country’s efforts to bring the treaty into force.
http://www.armscontrol.org/pdf/Start2-Chron.pdf
"Has anyone ever seen a Russian missile fly in a test or do they all blow up on the launch pad? I've only seen video U.S. missile tests."
try russarmy.com - there's several missiles tested - including the SS18 Satan.
Russia’s new missile fails again in test launch Much-lauded experimental missile designed to carry six nuclear warheads
Updated: 12:18 p.m. ET Oct 25, 2006
MOSCOW - An experimental Russian ballistic missile veered off its course shortly after having been launched from a Russian nuclear submarine and fell into the sea Wednesday in its second consecutive launch failure in as many months, officials said.
The Bulava missile was launched from the Dmitry Donskoy nuclear submarine underwater in the White Sea toward a testing range on the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, but it veered off its designated flight path minutes after the liftoff. The missile self-liquidated and its fragments fell into the sea, the navy said in a statement.
The botched launch signaled serious problems with the much-lauded Bulava.
This is a wrist watch site.
OK.....now I feel much safer....
Don't tell Putin we can see his mobile launchers on Google_Earth.
you are right! I'll have to dig deeper when I get home! It might even have been on youtube. There's a video on the topol as well.
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