By Lidia Kelly
(Reuters) -Russia is boosting its ballistic arsenal with new strategic missile systems, plans maximum-range launches and may increase testing in response to growing external threats, a senior Russian military commander said on Monday.
In a clear warning that Russia will respond if it deems its security is threatened, Sergei Karakayev, the commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, said the country plans maximum-range test launches as part of testing new systems.
“In terms of range, there is no place where our missiles cannot reach,” Russia’s RIA state news agency cited Karakayev as telling the Krasnaya Zvezda, the Russian defence ministry’s official newspaper, in an interview.
He added that Russia may increase the intensity of tests of its advanced missile weapons if external threats grow.
Confirming for the first time publicly that Russia is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile system, the Osina, Karakayev said the introduction into combat of Osina and a number of new missile systems is a priority.
He said, without revealing details, that Russia is also completing the development of missile systems akin to its new intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile known as Oreshnik, which President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia will mass-produce soon.
Russia struck Ukraine in November with Oreshnik in response to Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British missiles against Russia.
Karakayev said Russia’s new state armament development programme will consider various options for the development of strategic offensive weapons by Russia and will take into account similar moves by the U.S. after the expiration of the New START nuclear arms treaty between the countries in 2026.
Russian media reported in October that Moscow will not sign a replacement for the START treaty, the last remnant of efforts to slow the nuclear arms race between the former Cold War superpowers and to increase transparency by imposing verifiable limits on the number of weapons.
Karakayev said that Russia had not ruled out increasing the number of warheads on deployed missiles after the New START treaty expires, in response to similar actions by the United States.
He also said that Moscow and Washington continue to give each other a 24-hour warning of any planned test launch of intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles.
Russia’s armament programme ensures that Russia’s strategic missile forces are equipped with mobile missile systems, Karakayev said.
“Missile divisions equipped with mobile-based missile systems will be a decisive means of inflicting devastating damage on the enemy in a retaliatory strike due to high manoeuvrability and survivability, especially in the context of the deployment of the U.S. missile defence system,” he said.
(Reporting and writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Additional reporting by Oleksandr Kozhukhar in Kyiv; Editing by Chris Reese and Jamie Freed)
