A top Russian engineer has said his nation is developing a new ICBM capable of penetrating any missile defense measures, including any future space-based systems, ITAR-Tass reported today (see GSN, Jan. 2).
A more technologically advanced missile is necessary for Russia to maintain strategic parity with other nations as their missile defenses evolve, Yuri Solomonov, director general and head designer of the Moscow Institute of Heat Power Engineering, said in an interview published yesterday in the Military Industrial Courier.
Next-generation weapons systems, Solomonov said, "should secure a possibility of a retaliating strike. Secondly, the creation of the advanced strategic systems is unthinkable without their adaptation to the conditions of the full-scale deployment of missile defense systems, including with elements of space-basing."
The future Russian ICBM must be designed to defeat defense measures based "either on kinetic destruction in an extra-atmospheric area or elements of various kinds [of] weapons with new physical principles," he said, noting "it is necessary to make a decision on work (on the advanced missile system) in 2010-11" because new missile systems typically take between 10 and 12 years to develop.
Solomonov added that Russia is adding a new unit of silo-based and mobile-launched Topol-M ballistic missiles to its strategic missile forces, and Moscow plans to gradually deploy its RS-24 missile into 2025 (ITAR-Tass, June 18).