Report: New Russian Nuke Can Penetrate Missile Defense Systems

From Russia Today:

­Russia has developed a stand-alone nuclear warhead capable of penetrating any existing or projecting missile defense system, informs Interfax news agency.

According to Yury Solomonov, the chief designer of the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute, this unique system was successfully tested last year.

Unlike the payload of all previously-developed intercontinental ballistic missiles, the new weapon can hit several targets located at great distance from each other.

This means that the current multiple warhead dispensing mechanism called “bus”, a segment that delivers warheads to the destined drop zone used in all modern missiles, will be eliminated, because in the new system, once the terminal stage vehicle of ICBM booster does its job, the missile separates into warheads with “individual means of delivery to destination.”

He said that 30 years ago such a system was discussed and labeled science fiction.

The new innovative technology will “put a full stop on all discussions regarding our countermeasures towards non-existent antiballistic missile defense system of our potential enemy,” Solomonov is cited as having said.

Critics of the recently signed nuclear arms START treaty signed by the United States and Russia say the agreement significantly weakens American's ability to institute a missile defense system.

If these new reports are true, that might not matter.