Even if nobody here wants to discuss our behemoth missile defense program, the Russians are obviously paying attention.
Russia tests Topol-M missile to subdue USA's $50-billion air defense
11/02/2005 11:33
The unpredictable flight trajectory of the Russian missile makes it immune to destruction.
The successful test launch of the Topol-M missile has proved that the up-to-date Russian warhead is capable of subduing the USA's air defense, Russian military specialists say.
Obviously, though they've expressed support for the Central Asian Nuclear Weapons Free Zone
(CANWFZ), opposed by the U.S., Britain and France at the U.N., the Russians are hedging their bets by going ahead with their own missile defense against our supposedly defensive system.
The report in Pravda accepts that the U.S. missile defense aims to protect the territory of the U.S. and doesn't address the significance of the missiles in Turkey, Germany, Italy and Britain.
Russian strategic troops performed the test launch of the intercontinental ballistic missile RS-12M Topol on November 1. The chairman of the press service of the troops, Colonel Alexander Vovk, stated after the test launch that the missile successfully hit the conditional target on the Balkhash range ground in Kazakhstan.
It is worthy of note that yesterday's launch of the Topol-M missile became the sixth test of the system, which was created to subdue the US air defense. The Russian military command was keeping the entire flight data under control during the launch of the missile. The test showed that the maneuver, as performed by the missile on its flight trajectory, would not let foreign air defense troops intercept and destroy the missile.
[...]
The USA's ABM plan implies the creation of a layered anti-ballistic shield. The ABM system will give the USA an opportunity to defend its territory against possible attacks on the part of the states from the so-called axis of evil. The USA chose the evolutionary way for the development of its future air defense system, according to which the USA will not have the final and stagnant air defense structure. The USA deploys ground- and sea-based missile interceptors, Patriot systems and a variety of sensors on the ground, at sea and in space.
One might logically conclude that Russia, in making public the success of its missile tests and in endorsing the CANWFZ, is trying to send the U.S. a message that, regardless of their tolerance of missiles in Turkey, putting components of U.S. missile defense in additional locations, like those new bases being built in Iraq, is not going to be worth-while.
What do you think?