A top Russian military expert warned Monday that Moscow will stop reducing its offensive ballistic missiles if the US inaugurates a world-criticized national missile defense (NMD) program.
"Deployment by the United States of a national missile shield will force us to review its attitude to cutting combat rail missile systems," Vladimir Belous, Professor of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, told an interview with the Itar-Tass news agency.
To cease cutting down the missile arsenal "will help to preserve Russia's potential of nuclear-missile retribution in case of a nuclear-missile strike and will prevent the level of responsibility from lowering when taking important decisions," Belous stressed.
He named first the BZHRK RT-23 missiles for example. That is a solid fuel three stage missile with 10 independently targeted re- entry vehicles, equipped with a complex of penetration aids. Its maximum hitting range is 10,100 kilometers.
The missile is to be destroyed under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty II reached between Moscow and Washington.
Belous said that 36 rail missile systems are on combat duty in missile divisions in Eastern Siberia and in European Russia.
(People's Daily 04/03/2001)
