Russland behält 15 auf Eisenbahnzügen montierte SS24 Atomraketen
Geschrieben von IT Oma am 11. August 2002 15:59:46:
Russia plans to retain nuke missile trains
AP [ FRIDAY, AUGUST 09, 2002 6:25:06 PM ]
MOSCOW: Russia will retain a unit of train-mounted intercontinental ballistic missiles, one of the most powerful and menacing components of its nuclear forces, a top general said on Friday.
The Interfax-Military News Agency quoted Russia's Strategic Missile Forces chief, Col Gen Nikolai Solovtsov, as saying the military will keep one division of the train-mounted missiles.
The news agency quoted unidentified military officials as saying that the Kostroma division of RT-23 train-mountorage bases would be retained. Kostroma is a city on the Volga river 320 kms northeast of Moscow.
One division includes up to five trains, each carrying three missiles, the agency said. The RT-23 missile, known as the SS-2 4 in the West, became a part of the Soviet nuclear arsenal in the late 1980s. Each missile carries ten nuclear warheads.
Russia was supposed to scrap all its RT-23 missiles under the 1993 Start II nuclear arms reduction treaty with the United States, which would have reduced the number of nuclear warheads in each country's arsenal to 3,000 to 3,500. However, the treaty was never implemented, and Russia formally withdrew from the agreement in June after the US abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.