The Hindu : Russia builds anti-missile defence weapons?

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, May 26, 2003

International

International

Russia builds anti-missile defence weapons?

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW MAY 25. Russia may be close to building a new weapons system capable of destroying the missile shield the United States has started to deploy.

Commenting on the Russian President, Vladimir Putin s recent announcement that Russia was developing new strategic weapons, a senior defence expert said that the Russian leader was apparently speaking about new precision weapons designed to destroy space-based elements of the U.S. missile defence system.

Delivering his annual address to the Parliament a week ago, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said that work to create new types of Russian weapons, weapons of a new generation, including those regarded by specialists as strategic weapons, was in the practical implementation stage. The announcement caught Western experts by surprise, as they had no clue Russia was developing new strategic weapons, except for a new type of strategic missile for the navy christened Bulova.

Some analysts suggested that Mr. Putin was referring to Russia's efforts to develop new low-yield nuclear weapons similar to those designed by the United States for use against terrorist bases.

However, a Russian defence official told the Itar-Tass news agency that Russia was not developping any nuclear arms that may be used against terrorists. At the same time he confirmed that Rusia was building pin-point weapons to counter new threats. He also said that strategic weapons must not necessarily have a nuclear component.

A Russian expert in space warfare further raised a little the veil of secrecy over Mr. Putin s intriguing statement about new strategic arms, suggesting that the Russian President must have been talking about new anti-missile-defence weapons.

It will be most probably space-based weapons, using ordinary shrapnel shells or more effective systems based on novel physical principles to hit American satellites, Mr. Radmir Smirnov, a retired Defence Ministry official who had held senior positions in space-related research institutes for 20 years, said explaining that the new weapon system would be Russia s asymmetrical reply to America s costly national missile defence (NMD).

Russia will not be able to create a similar system, as it would cost $300-400 billions, Mr. Smirnov told the Argumenty i Fakty weekly.

But it can give an asymmetrical reply, involving the destruction of vital NMD elements... These novel Russian weapons would cost no more than $3-4 billions, or a hundred times less that the NMD system.

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