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MINISTRY PUBLISHES MISSILES BOOK
The Moscow Times. July 2001. Bradly Perreti. Reuters
 LONDON – A new book published with the backing of the Defense Ministry details the performance of Russia's tactical ballistic missiles, including one that may have been supplied to North Korea.
The ministry/ which last year sponsored an encyclopedia of Russian strategic systems, has this year supported an account of tactical weapons such as short-range ballistic missiles and powerful anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems.
"The weapons systems and military equipment presented in this volume vividly
demonstrate the talent and commitment of our designers, engineers and workmen",
President Vladimir Putin writes in a brief foreword to the book. "Rocket
and Artillery Armament of Ground Forces".
One paragraph in particular will catch the eye of Western defense analysts. Accompanying an article by top rocketry officials, is shows the progressive improvement in Russian ballistic missile accuracy from 1950 to 2000.
It suggests that the latest tactical weapon – one designed to support forces engaged in battle – will certainly hit within 200 meters of its targets. The figure appears to refer to an update of the Tochka tactical-ballistic-missile system, since no Later weapon is known to have entered service.
The standard Western guide to such missiles, "Jane's Strategic Weapon
Systems", gives a median, not maximum, miss distance of 95 meters. Russian
engineers appear to have promised that, whatever the average, no weapon will
land more that twice as far from the target as that.
According to Jane's Tochka missiles exported to Syria may have been passed to North Korea in 1996 for copying.
Doug Richardson, the editor of another Jane's publication, said the guidance system in various versions of the Tochka which NATO code-names SS-21 Scarab, was presumably more sophisticated than what North Korea uses in its missiles.
North Korea's missiles are derived from the old Russian R-11 and R-17 (SS-1 Scud) rockets and have reputed median accuracies from 450 meters to 3 kilometers.
"It might well give them an injection of technology", said Richardson,
editor of Jane's Missiles and Rockets. "If they do have some Tochkas, then
they may be seeing something better than what they have got".
"Rocket and Artillery Armament of Ground Forces", edited by Nikolai
Spassky and with an editorial board composed of Russian military commanders,
also details the performance of Russia's latest anti-ballistic-missile system,
the Antei 2500.
Ballistic missiles are extremely difficult to intercept. Unlike cruise missiles, which fly like aircraft, ballistic weapons are simply thrown on a trajectory by their rocket engines and then fall on their targets at terrific speed.
The higher their velocity on the way up, the further they travel and the faster they fall – so initial attempts at dealing with them have targeted slower, shorter-range models.
According to Spassky, the Antei 2500 can engage ballistic missiles falling on their targets at 4,500 meters per second – the sort of velocity developed by a weapon with a range of 2,500 kilometers.
"Rocket and Artillery Armament of Ground Forces", published by Russia-based
Arms and Technologies with text in English and Russian, is available on the
internet at
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