Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Russia is examining “technical and scientific” measures to counter U.S. missile defense systems, Agence France-Presse reported today (see GSN, March 19).

“I want to underline that the U.S. shield does not yet exist, and so it is difficult to speak of retaliatory measures,” Ivanov said during a visit to a Russian military base, according to ITAR-Tass.  “We are going to do everything to counter these threats when they take shape, if they ever take shape, which is to say not before 2015-2020.”

Russian strategic forces are “the basis for the effectiveness of our army,” Ivanov said (Agence France-Presse/Yahoo.com, March 28).

Russia needs a “triad” of strategic forces — ground-based, sea-based and air-based, the minister added (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2001).

“As for the future, the main thing now is to preserve the freedom of choice,” Ivanov said.  “We are doing everything we can to preserve the freedom of choice on where to deploy and station these forces.”

Russia also will continue to rely on Topol-M missiles, Ivanov said (see GSN, Feb. 15).  The Topol-M is a small, single-warhead ICBM that can be launched from a silo or mobile launcher.  It is scheduled to replace many Soviet-era ballistic missiles (Associated Press, March 27).

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