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MOSCOW (AFP) — Russia will by 2020 replace its Soviet-era arsenal with new nuclear-capable intercontinental missiles that can overcome defence systems like the US missile shield, the military said Wednesday.
"By 2015-2020 the Russian strategic rocket forces will have new complete missile systems with improved combat characteristics," General Nikolai Solovtsov told reporters at a briefing in the Moscow region.
"They will be capable of carrying out any tasks, including in conditions where an enemy uses anti-missile defence measures," said Solovtsov, the overall commander of Russia's missile forces, quoted by Russian news agencies.
Russia is working hard to upgrade its elderly missile forces and has repeatedly tested new missiles in recent months amid the controversy over the missile shield.
"Basically his comments mean almost all Soviet-made or 1990s intercontinental ballistic missiles will be withdrawn and scrapped by 2020," leading Russian defence analyst Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP.
"The missile force will be much slimmer than the present one, which is still a leftover from the Cold War and Soviet times," he added.
The refurbishment of the missile forces comes amid Russian fury at the US plan to install missile defence facilities in central Europe, despite US assurances that the system is not directed against Moscow.
Washington plans to put an anti-missile radar facility in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland, both ex-Soviet bloc countries which are now NATO members.
President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have urged US president-elect Barack Obama to drop the system, which was devised by President George W. Bush's administration.
"My assessment is the Russians intend to test the mettle of the new administration and the new president," said John Rood, acting US under secretary of state for arms control and international security.
"And the future will show how the new administration chooses to answer that challenge," he told reporters in Washington, citing both its stance on "missile defence and other subjects".
Despite expressions of optimism from Moscow, Obama has yet to give any details about his intentions.
Meanwhile US Senator Richard Lugar, a veteran in US-Russian arms control efforts, urged both countries to get cracking on replacing a key army treaty that expires in December 2009.
It was vital to make a "running start" in talks to replace the START 1 treaty, which was brokered between Washington and Moscow and led to major reductions in nuclear arsenals, Lugar said at a Moscow forum.
Solovtsov said the Russian rocket forces are "developing and putting new missile systems on combat duty and perfecting their capabilities in line with the threats that are currently apparent".
Russia's missile arsenal still contains Soviet-era war horses like the Stiletto, the Voevoda and the Topol but the military has been seeking to phase in newer weapons.
The military has already started mass production of the Topol-M, a three-stage ballistic missile with a range of 10,000 kilometres (6,200 miles) which can be deployed on both stationary and mobile launch platforms.
Felgenhauer said that Russia's new intercontinental missile arsenal will essentially be built around the Topol-M.
"It is not clear how many will be deployed but it is clear it will be less than now. Russia will also lose in payload capacity, maybe four or five times," he said.
Generals have said that from December 2009 Russia will deploy its new RS-24, which is similar to the Topol-M but carries a multiple warhead.
In November, it also successfully tested the Bulava, the sea-based equivalent of the Topol-M which is also capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, reaching a target 6,000 kilometres (4,000 miles) away.
Solovtsov denied that the RS-24 violates the START 1 treaty, which he says only bans adding additional warheads to existing missiles or expanding the number of warheads on multiple-warhead weapons.
The refurbishment of the missile forces comes alongside a wider shake-up of the armed forces, which is expected to see a massive reorganisation of structures and personnel cuts to make the military more dynamic.
Russia hopeful on Obama START talks
UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Russia says it expects the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to be receptive to extending an arms reduction treaty.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday at the United Nations in New York he expects "the new (U.S.) administration to maintain constructive cooperation with us so that the (Strategic Arms Reduction) treaty can be preserved and strengthened, rather than weakened, after December 2009," RIA Novosti reported.
START, signed in 1991, is set to expire that month, and Lavrov said he would like to see not just an extension but a strengthening of the current limits of 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads on each side, as well as other limits for delivery vehicles -- such as bombers, land-based and submarine-based missiles -- to 1,600 each.
Noting START talks had begun but not borne any fruit, Lavrov said they will be continued with the Obama administration, adding Russia's aim was to ensure the "strengthening of strategic stability without depriving this sphere of the control, verification and limitation mechanisms or the instruments for strategic arms reductions established in earlier agreements," the news agency reported.
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