Russia Plans New ICBMs, Nuclear Subs, Aircraft Carriers
Pastor Dale Morgan
Russia Plans New ICBMs, Nuclear Subs, Aircraft Carriers*
By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 7, 2007; 1:02 PM
MOSCOW -- Russia's defense minister on Wednesday laid out an ambitious
plan for building new intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear
submarines and possibly aircraft carriers, and set the goal of exceeding
the Soviet army in combat readiness.
Sergei Ivanov's statements appeared aimed at raising his profile at home
ahead of the 2008 election in which he is widely seen as a potential
contender to succeed President Vladimir Putin. But they also seemed to
reflect a growing chill in Russian-U.S. relations and the Kremlin's
concern about U.S. missile defense plans.
Ivanov told parliament the military would get 17 new ballistic missiles
this year _ a drastic increase over the average of four deployed
annually in recent years. The purchases are part of a weapons
modernization program for 2007-2015 worth about $190 billion.
The plan envisages the deployment of 34 new silo-based Topol-M missiles
and control units, as well as an additional 50 such missiles mounted on
mobile launchers by 2015; Russia so far has deployed more than 40
silo-based Topol-Ms.
Putin and other officials have described the Topol-M as a bulwark of
Russia's nuclear might for years to come, and said it can penetrate any
prospective missile defenses. Last week, Putin dismissed U.S. claims
that missile defense sites Washington hopes to establish in Poland and
the Czech Republic were intended to counter threats from Iran, and said
Russia would respond by developing more efficient weapons systems.
In 2002, Putin and President Bush signed a treaty obliging both sides to
cut their strategic nuclear weapons by about two-thirds by 2012, down to
1,700 to 2,200 missiles. But Russian-U.S. ties have since worsened
steadily over disagreements on Iraq and other global crises, and U.S.
concerns about an increasingly authoritarian streak in Russia's domestic
policy.
"The Russian leadership believes that a nuclear parity with the United
States is vitally important because it allows it to conduct an equal
dialogue on other issues," said an independent military analyst,
Alexander Golts.
A rising tide of oil revenues has enabled Russia to boost defense
spending following a squeeze on the military in the 1990s. "The question
now is whether the industries are capable of producing what the military
needs," Ivanov said.
Analysts warn that building any sizable numbers of new weapons would
pose a daunting challenge to the defense plants that received virtually
no government orders for a decade following the 1991 Soviet collapse.
"Links to subcontractors have been broken, and the defense plants now
need to rebuild them to produce weapons," Golts said.
Alexander Pikayev, a senior analyst at the Moscow-based Institute for
World Economy and International Relations, said the military had failed
to set the right priorities for weapons procurement in the past.
Russia's defense budget, which stood at $8.1 billion in 2001, nearly
quadrupled to $31 billion this year, Ivanov said. While this year's
military spending is Russia's largest since the 1991 Soviet collapse, it
is still about 20 times less than the U.S. defense budget.
Ivanov said the military now has enough money to intensify combat training.
"Combat readiness of the army and the navy is currently the highest in
the post-Soviet history," he said, adding the task now is to "exceed
Soviet-era levels."
Ivanov said the military now has about 1.13 million servicemen, compared
with 1.34 million in 2001. By 2015, the military plans to have about 1
million servicemen as Russia continues to reduce its bloated armed
forces. "We can't go below that," he said.
The Kremlin has rejected liberals' calls to abolish the draft, saying
Russia needs a large number of conscripts to protect its huge territory.
Ivanov said the weapons modernization program would allow the military
to replace 45 percent of existing arsenals with modern weapons systems
by 2015.
As part of the plan, the navy will commission 31 new ships, including
eight nuclear submarines carrying intercontinental ballistic missiles,
Ivanov said.
He played down recent failed launches of the Bulava missile being
developed to equip these submarines. The Bulava, developed by the same
design bureau that built the Topol-M, failed in three consecutive
launches late last year.
"If we already had commissioned this missile and had failures, that
would have been a nightmare," Ivanov said, adding that launch failures
were "within the norm" in the testing phase.
He also said the government would decide in 2009-2010 whether to start
the construction of a new shipyard for building aircraft carriers.
Russia now only has one Soviet-built medium-sized aircraft carrier
capable of carrying about 30 jets and helicopters.