MOSCOW. May 20 (Interfax-AVN) - Today only five nations - the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France and China - are capable of creating and testing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Russian General Staff said.
"Currently, no country, except for the U.S., Russia, UK, France and China, which already possess nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles, is capable technically and from the organizational point of view to develop and carry out in situ tests of a missile that meets the ICBM requirements," Russian Army General Staff spokesman Vyacheslav Kondrashov said at a conference on missile-defense issues in Moscow.
Creating an ICBM is an "extremely labor and time consuming (process)," he said. This requires the resolution of very complicated technical and technological problems such as the creation of a propulsion unit, control systems and warheads, he said.
Converting a space rocket into an intercontinental missile capable of delivering nuclear warheads at an intercontinental range is also very difficult. "To resolve this problem one has to change the structure of the rocket. It is impossible to disguise the testing of a space rocket converted into an ICBM," Kondrashov said.