By RIA Novosti
Moscow : Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) would deploy 11 new silo and mobile-launched Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missiles in 2008, the SMF commander has said.
General Nikolai Solovtsov said the weapons would be deployed in the European part of Russia, adding: “The SMF will receive 11 up-to-date Topol-M ICBMs in two versions (silo and mobile-launched)”.
The missile (NATO reporting name SS-27), with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 km), is said to be immune to any current and future US anti ballistic missile defence. It is capable of making evasive manoeuvres to avoid terminal phase interceptors and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.
It is also shielded against radiation, electromagnetic pulse, nuclear blasts, and is designed to survive a hit from any form of laser technology.
General Solovtsov earlier said that Topol-M systems would be equipped with multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years.
Russia, which now operates around 50 Topol-Ms, resumed strategic bomber patrol flights over the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans last August, following an order by President Vladimir Putin.
In a speech Feb 8, Putin blamed the West for unleashing a new international arms race.