MOSCOW. May 30 (Interfax-AVN) - The building-up of the arsenal of cruise missiles by Western armies could pose a long-term threat to Russia's security, the Russian Armed Forces General Staff said.
"We forecast that by 2020 Western countries will be armed with about 80,000 cruise missiles, including about 2,000 with nuclear warheads. It is clear that such arsenals are being created no just for exercises or intimidation. These weapons are quite capable of disarming and decapitation strikes," deputy chief of the Russian Army General Staff Maj. Gen. Igor Sheremet said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station on Saturday.
Decapitation strikes are those against the upper command bodies, while disarming strikes are those against retaliatory and launch-on-warning strike facilities, he said.
The recent years saw a growing threat to Russia's security from aerospace strikes, as potential opponents are developing aerospace weapons, said Sheremet, who is in charge of the military science at the Russian Army General Staff.
Another serious threat is the emergence and enhancement of the latest missile defense systems in the United States and other countries, he said. It was these threats that led to Russia's decision to create an aerospace defense (VKO) system.
The VKO system will have facilities allowing to detect enemy's aerospace weapons, should these be applied, as well as to repel and neutralize these threats at the very early stage. Besides, the system will involve, if necessary, "the activation of the retaliatory arsenal of nuclear weapons being in the service of the Armed Forces, which is due to emerge in coming years," the general said.