Russia Tests ICBM - Meanwhile, Japan Shoots One Down In Space
Russian SR-24.
SM3.
MOSCOW- Russia’s military on Tuesday successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads - a weapon intended to replace aging Soviet-era missiles.
The RS-24 missile was launched from the Plesetsk launch facility in northern Russia and its test warheads successfully hit designated targets on the Kura testing range on the Kamchatka Peninsula some 4,340 miles east, Strategic Missile Forces spokesman Alexander Vovk told The Associated Press.
Vovk said that the missile carried multiple test warheads, but refused to say how many. The Interfax news agency said the RS-24 is capable of carrying at least three warheads.
The Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement that the missile was launched from a mobile launcher.
It said the new missile was based on the Topol-M and built by the same design team - Moscow’s Heat Technology Institute led by Yuri Solomonov. The RS-24 was first test-fired successfully in May.
Existing Topol-M missiles carry a single nuclear warhead and are capable of hitting targets more than 6,000 miles away.
The Strategic Missile Forces said the RS-24 missile is designed to replace Soviet-built missiles with multiple nuclear warheads, such as RS-18 and RS-20. Those missiles are known in the West as the SS-19 Stiletto and the SS-18 Satan.
President Vladimir Putin has used windfall oil revenues to modernize Russia’s military arsenals amid increasing tensions with the West. The Kremlin has fiercely opposed U.S. plans to deploy missile defense sites in Poland and the Czech Republic, saying they threaten Russia’s security.
Meanwhile…
Kauai, Hawaii-The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force successfully flight tested its first Raytheon Company (NYSE: RTN)-built Standard Missile-3. The SM-3 Block IA missile engaged and destroyed a medium-range ballistic missile target more than 60 miles above the Pacific Ocean. Personnel at the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai launched the ballistic missile target while the crew of the Japanese destroyer JS KONGO (DDG-173) fired the intercepting missile.
“Today’s intercept truly paves the way for Japan to deploy a sea-based ballistic missile defense system,” said Ed Miyashiro, Raytheon Missile Systems vice president. “The U.S. has gained an important ally that can now defend itself against the threat of ballistic missiles.”
During the test, the Japanese crew exchanged track information via satellite with U.S. naval assets, demonstrating missile defense interoperability between the two countries. This test was the 12th successful intercept for the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense system’s SM-3.
Japan is working with Raytheon and the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to develop and deploy the next-generation SM-3 Block IIA missile, which will provide a larger area of defense against more sophisticated threats.
SM-3 is being developed as part of the MDA’s sea-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System. The missiles will be deployed on Aegis cruisers and destroyers to defend against short-to-intermediate range ballistic missile threats in the midcourse phase of flight.
(AP & SPX)
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And we’re reducing our inventory of nukes? How fooking stupid.
December 26th, 2007 at 8:13 amDan, it doesn’t bother me so much that we are reducing our inventories. It’s that the Dihms are not allowing us to upgrade our inventories since we no longer test nukes. Sure would hate to have to really need them to work and suddenly find out that they do not.
December 26th, 2007 at 9:01 amNukes have a shelf-life (or maybe half-life would be more appropriate) and must be replaced. Otherwise, you get a fizzle, an incomplete detonation. That turns a city-buster into a tactical nuke, and a tactical into a beefed up dirty bomb.
Most pacifist policies have the opposite effect of what their framers intend. They make war more likely, not less, since it only takes one to wage war. No one respects weakness. Look at difference between Switzerland and Belgium. The first has a history of massacreing invading armies, and the second has been trampled over by every army since Napoleon.
December 26th, 2007 at 1:20 pm