#3
Novye Izvestia
October 16, 2002
ANTI-MISSILE UMBRELLA FOR SALE
Russia may take advantage of the new cycle of the arms race
Author: Vladimir Urban
[from WPS Monitoring Agency, www.wps.ru/e_index.html]

THE US CONTINUES TESTS OF ITS MISSILE DEFENSE SYSTEM. HOWEVER, CHINA IS REPORTED TO HAVE DESIGN A MISSILE ABLE TO BREAK THROUGH THAT SHIELD. IN THIS CONTEXT, IT IS JUST THE TIME FOR RUSSIA TO OFFER SOME OF ITS DEVELOPMENTS IN THE MISSILE DEFENSE FIELD FOR SALE.

The Pentagon has announced the fourth test of the national missile defense system. Yesterday, an interceptor missile launched from the Ronald Reagan testing area in the Marshall Islands downed a training warhead of a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missile. It was the first time that a destroyer participated in targeting a missile at the warhead of Minuteman. The destroyer was equipped with the Igis radar system. In the opinion of our source in the Russian general Staff, the US has made a principal decision to approach its nuclear shield to the borders of Russia and China. That is why the Pentagon has activated its tests of sea-based components of the missile defense system lately. Our source has noted in this connection that anti-ballistic missiles have been launched from the cruiser Lake Erie for several times. He has said in this connection, "The next test of destruction of a missile target will involve the aiming systems and the weapon system based on ships. As a result, Americans will give up the idea of construction of underground bases of the national anti- missile defense system and will construct them in the ocean, as close to the potential threat as possible."

Russia is unable to secure its entire territory against the American anti-missile system. The Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty of 1972, from which the US withdrew this year, allowed Russia deploying anti-ballistic systems only around Moscow. However, even this system has not been modernized for almost one-fourth of the century. There are launchers for A-350 interception missiles at six positions here. However, on October 3, the Space Forces have conducted a successful test launching of an anti-ballistic missile at the testing area of Sary-Shagan, Kazakhstan. This missile had been delivered there from Russia, where it had been deployed for over 20 years. According to some sources, this test was aimed not only at proving the reliability of A-350 missiles but also at trying the systems before modernization of the anti-ballistic missiles. Thus, Russia, too, is trying to react to changes in the world caused by the abolition of the ABM treaty.

We are unable to adequately respond to the deployment of the national anti-missile defense system for financial reasons. However, Russia could make a lot of money from the anti-missile umbrella. Moscow and Washington have already been conducting unofficial negotiations on this topic for nearly a year.

According to the Pentagon's sources, China has already built a CSS-5 missile able to pierce the American missile defense system. During tests conducted last summer, a CSS-5 missile carrying a nuclear warhead over a distance of almost 2,000 kilometers successfully avoided several "airborne destructive objects". The US administration has sent a special memorandum on this topic to Taiwan and Japan, since this missile could well reach their coasts. This warning obviously has a specific aim: to share American anti-missile technologies. So far, the Pentagon believes that after its system is fully deployed in 2006, it will be able to intercept only two single-warhead ICBMs. But the new wave of the arms race has been launched, and Beijing seems to have accepted the Pentagon's challenge. It is time for Russia to offer its developments in the anti-ballistic field for sale.

(Translated by Kirill Frolov)

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