RIA Novosti,
MOSCOW: Russia needs to produce up to 30 intercontinental ballistic missiles a year to maintain a strategic nuclear balance with the United States, a senior security expert said Tuesday.
Alexei Arbatov, head of the international security center at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti that if Russia continued to produce only 6-8 Topol-M missiles a year it would have only 150 such missiles and three nuclear submarines in 10-15 years.
No country currently has missiles like the Topol-M, which is capable of penetrating anti-missile defense systems, he said, “and is unlikely to possess them in the next 20 years.”
Arbatov also said Russia and the U.S. should boost strategic stability talks.
“We need a more radical treaty on strategic offensive reductions with a reliable control mechanism,” he said. “Such a treaty should fix a limit of 1,000 warheads for the two countries.”
Under the current agreement, Russia and the U.S. are to reduce their total number of warheads to 1,700-2,200 by December 31, 2012.
“By that time, Russia will have no more than 1,000 warheads anyway, but this gap [1,700-2,200] allows the U.S. to maintain nuclear dominance,” Arbatov said.
