The US successfully conducted the first test of its ballistic missile interceptor recently . But despite this, in the field of anti-missile defense, the country is a decade behind Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces, said Russian media Politika Segodnya.
At the end of last month, the US Defense Department’s Missile Defense Agency reported that the US Army successfully tested its Aegis missile defense system and intercepted a medium-range ballistic missile.
The Pentagon considered this test a key moment in the development of the US anti-missile defense program.
In his article for the Russian edition, journalist Yuri Podoyaka compared this latest US advance with Russia’s technological development in this sector.
“Undoubtedly, this is a much-anticipated advance of the American technical concept, but Russia is currently withdrawing from such military service and moving on to a new generation of warheads, against which the new US missile is totally incapable to fight,” he commented.
In addition, the journalist assures that it is not worth waiting for the emergence of a true interceptor of naval missiles in the USA.
“The entire concept of Aegis’ integrated missile defense system is incapable of combating the new Russian missiles and from the outset this system was a dead end,” he said.
Today, the new projectile can reach an altitude of up to 500 km and destroy targets at a distance of several hundred kilometers, admits the author of the article.
“It is a true masterpiece of technology, but absolutely useless to fight against the intercontinental ballistic missiles of its likely adversary, Russia.”
According to the journalist, the US military is not even trying to reach that goal because they understand that today it is beyond the capabilities of its new weapon. To achieve targets flying at speeds of 6-7 kilometers per second, you need to have a much higher precision system or much greater possibilities to correct the missile’s warhead trajectory.
The only possibility of destroying the new Russian missiles seems to be to intercept them in the early stages of the trajectory, said the journalist, especially if the Arleigh Burke Flight III destroyers try to intercept missiles launched from Russian submarines.
However, Russia is developing the means to deprive the US of this possibility as well, by positioning the S-400 Triumph anti-aircraft missile systems, and in the future, the S-500 Prometei aboard its Borei-class submarines.
Its main goal is to protect Russian territory from US nuclear warheads, writes the columnist.
“During the 20 years of its existence, the US Aegis anti-missile program continues to be a very expensive entertainment and a very convenient way for admirals and corporations to obtain income,” he said.
