Speaking in his annual State of the Nation address, Putin dismissed arguments that the proposed European missile shield is defensive only and described it as having a strategically offensive potential.
Russia has bristled in recent years at what it perceives as attempts by Western nations to undermine its national defense strategy and has sounded an increasingly bellicose note in resisting that trend.
Putin said that Russia is closely monitoring the development by some countries of new, fast-strike weapon platforms capable of hitting high-priority targets around the globe.
“The increase by foreign countries of their strategic, high-precision non-nuclear systems potential and boosting missile defense possibilities could ruin earlier reached agreements on nuclear arms control and reduction, and lead to the disruption of the so-called strategic balance,” Putin said.
“No one should have illusions over a possibility of taking military advantage over Russia,” he said. “We will never allow this.”
Putin said Russia’s military has sufficient potential to respond to all challenges and ensure national security.
He said Russia had achieved significant progress in the development of its nuclear deterrent and will continue strengthening its nuclear triad – which comprises strategic bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles – while focusing on the development of high-precision weaponry.
Russia will also create a global reconnaissance network, which will ensure fast and reliable real-time data exchange within the armed forces, Putin said.
He said the government had allocated 23 trillion rubles ($702 billion) on the development of the armed forces and the overhaul of the defense industry until 2020.
The ambitious rearmament program through 2020 will see the share of modern weaponry in the armed forces reach 30 percent by 2015 and 70 percent by 2020.
Commenting on Putin’s address, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said Thursday that Russia had already taken steps to make its nuclear deterrent “invulnerable” but that, unlike the Soviet Union, it would not be drawn into an arms race.
“All our actions will be asymmetrical. They will be based on the concept of defensive sufficiency,” Rogozin said.
***Russia's view of European missile shield
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131212/185497595/Putin-Says-Bids-to-Gain-Military-Dominance-Over-Russia-Futile.html
12/12/13
--
--
Related:
GR
FR
DE
ES
IT
RU
EU
Putin Says Missile Defense Systems Threathen Strategic Balance...
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW, December 12 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that plans by foreign powers to develop high-precision weapons for use with missile defense systems will threaten agreements that have ensured the global strategic balance.
Speaking in his annual State of the Nation address, Putin said that Russia was aware that the US-planned missile defense system in Eastern Europe was defensive only in name and described it as having strategically offensive potential.
“The increase by foreign countries of their strategic, high-precision non-nuclear systems potential and boosting missile defense possibilities could ruin earlier reached agreements in the sphere of nuclear arms control and reduction and lead the disruption of the so-called strategic balance,” he said.
“No one should have illusions over a possibility of taking military advantage over Russia,” Putin said. “We will never allow this.”
http://en.ria.ru/russia/20131212/185493210/Putin-Says-Missile-Defense-Systems-Threathen-Strategic-Balance.html
12/12/13
Russia Plans Rail-Mounted Missiles to Counter US Global Strike Program...
ReplyDeleteMOSCOW, December 18 (RIA Novosti) – Russia will draft a plan in the coming year to deploy rail-mounted nuclear missiles as a potential response to the United States’ Prompt Global Strike program, the commander of its Strategic Missile Force said on Wednesday.
“A Defense Ministry report has been submitted to the president and the order has been given to develop a preliminary design of a rail-mounted missile system,” Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakaev said.
The work will be carried out by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology – the developer of the submarine-launched Bulava nuclear missile – in the first half of next year.
Karakaev added that defense officials, after analyzing the American system, concluded “there is a need to reconsider the issue of a rail-mounted missile system given its increased survivability and the extent of our railway network.”
The rail weapons plan appears to be a response to a US program known as Prompt Global Strike that includes development of long-range missiles with conventional explosives in place of nuclear warheads. The United States says the program would increase the options available in responding to high-priority threats around the globe. A high-speed, high-altitude drone has also been considered as part of the program.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who oversees the defense industry, a week ago called the program “the most important new strategy being developed by the United States today” and warned that American leaders “must bear in mind, that if we are attacked, in certain circumstances we will of course respond with nuclear weapons.”
Rogozin has recently championed Russian efforts to develop hypersonic air-launched weapons as a counterpart to similar US developments likely to be part of Prompt Global Strike.
The US abandoned plans for a rapid global strike capability under President George W. Bush over concerns that the weapons risked triggering an accidental nuclear war.
Unlike silo-based nuclear missiles, the location of rail-mounted missiles can be kept hidden and camouflaged amidst commercial rail traffic. The last of the Soviet-era SS-24 Scalpel rail-based nuclear missiles was decommissioned in 2005.
Russia insists that long-range missiles with conventional warheads must count towards the quota of nuclear delivery systems imposed by the New START treaty signed by Russia and the United States in 2011.
New START does not prohibit the development of rail-based missiles.
http://en.ria.ru/military_news/20131218/185683711/Russia-Plans-Rail-Mounted-Missiles-to-Counter-US-Global-Strike.html
18/12/13