MOSCOW. Sept 13 (Interfax-AVN) - The Russian Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) may get a new liquid-state fuel ICBM by 2020, ex-Chief of the SMF General Staff, First Vice President of the Academy for Security, Defense, and Law-Enforcement Problems, Colonel General Viktor Esin says.
"The resent project on a future strategic missile force mentions that the SMF may need a new liquid-state fuel missile after 2012. The scientific backlog will have been established by 2012. If necessary, designers will get specification requirements and seven to eight years later we will have a new liquid-state fuel missile," Esin said in an interview with the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper, published on Thursday.
The SMF will not need the new missile earlier than 2020, he said. However, its development should take into account U.S. plans to deploy its NMD components in space.
"If the U.S. deploys attack elements in space, which is unlikely to happen before 2020-2025, we will need a capability of breaching such defenses. Topol-Ms and RS-24s will not be able to cope with such tasks, thus, we will take a pre-emptive step and order a new liquid-fuel missile in 2012," Esin said.
At the same time he emphasized that a force of solid-fuel ICBMs was the best short-term option for the SMF.