| The United States and other western countries showed concern about the new Russian ballistic missile which is to be used for intercontinental targets and can penetrate any current or future defence system, as reported by high military officials. "The missile development was a top
secret matter," said First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov, "and now we can look into our future with confidence and security." The test launch of the missile successfully terminated the target located at over 3,400 miles away.
Mr. Ivanov is a former Russian minister of defence and is seen by many politicians as a likely successor of Vladimir Putin in the next Russian presidential elections in 2008. This development and launch of the next generation missile is seen as a step in adding political capital for the next year's election. Despite western concerns about growing tensions with the Russian - US relationship, Ivanov said that the missiles will mainly be used for short range to medium range targets and border defense, even though this ballistic missile is capable of reaching targets on other continents in a matter of minutes, and can easily make a flight around the globe.
Missile History:
The first “air-to-surface” guided missiles were developed at the end of the Second World War in Germany. The German planning air bomb Fritz X (English Fritz X) is quite often called the first-ever, however it had an essential difference from the guided missile — it had no power facilities on board, thus it was the forerunner of the modern guided air bombs, but not missiles. The first “air-to- surface” missile was Hs 293 — a German planning bomb with the rocket engine. The taking of launching platforms of the Fi-103 (V-1) missiles by the allies led to the creation of the first strategic cruise missile air bases. The first launching from rocket carriers He-111 and Ju-88 over the North Sea water area to attack London took place at 5 o'clock in the morning on September 16, 1944. At the end of the war the armed forces of Japan used a missile with a unique guiding system — MXY7 Ohka which had the kamikaze as the basic element of its control system.
After the Second World War was ended the allies carried out a number of experiments with German samples.
The firm “Republic” developed the JB-2 missile on the basis of trophy Fi-103 in the USA, despite low accuracy, it was produced in a quantity of about 1 400 pieces.
The USA has concentrated on the development of the strategic “air-to- surface” missiles, capable to deliver a nuclear charge to the target in the heart of an enemy’s territory. The firm “Bell” developed the strategic cruise missile GAM-63 RASCAL with an independent guiding system which was followed by the AGM-28 Hound Dog. However, despite various shifts, for example, stellar monitoring of autopilot system was made on AGM-28 missile before launching, the accuracy of the missiles was very low.
The first Soviet strategic “air-to- surface” missile X-20 was added to USSR armoury in 1960, but bad operational characteristics forced them to re-design it to an anti-ship mission. In 1968 the anti-ship missile H-22 was added to the armoury, its various modifications were designed also for strategic missions.
The same happened in France, the designers used the AA.20 missile as the basis for developing the first “air -to-surface” tactical missile AS.20, it was followed by a more powerful AS.30 with the same radio command guiding system.
The rapid development of helicopters, along with features of their flight characteristics, led to the practical replacement of planes of army aircraft by them. Besides transport and reconnaissance missions, the mission of fire attack of an enemy, including his armoured equipment, by guiding missiles was assigned to them. The features of performance characteristics of helicopters, lower speeds compared to planes, and also rather low loading capacity, predetermined the use of surface anti-tank missiles as the “air-to- surface” weapon of helicopters. A guided missile AS.11, the aviation version of the surface missile SS.11, which was added to armoury in 1956, was set on a helicopter in France. It was followed by more powerful AS.12 missile. The USA added the AS.11 missiles to the armory under the name of AGM-22 in 1961. They had the command control system with wired signal transmission and visual tracking of flight by an operator executing its guidance. The tracking function in the next generation of anti-tank missiles was carried out by automatic optical sensors. In 1969 the USA adopted the guided missiles BGM-71, that became the basic element of the guided missiles of American shock helicopters. The “Falanga” missiles became the first “air-to- surface” missiles of helicopters in the USSR, it was added to the armory as an aviation option in 1972. They were the rockets of the first generation, but the commands for them were transmitted by a radio channel. The European anti-tank missiles of the second generation called “HOT” (Haut subsonique Optiquement Téléguidé Tiré d'un Tube, transliterated as High Subsonic Optical Remote-Guided Fired From Tube) added to the armory in 1974. |
This week Russia has successfully tested a new intercontinental ballistic missile that supposedly can penetrate any defence system. Despite Washington's concerns about this new generation weapon, Russian defence minister said the missile is to be used mainly for border defence at 30 to 200 mile range.
