Russia to sell multi-warhead missiles that can beat Israel's new anti-missile system

MOSCOW -- The designer of advanced multi-warhead missiles capable of overcoming Israel's new anti-missile system said Russia would sell them to its clients in the Middle East, a newspaper here reported.

The new weapon is the Iskander-E, with a range of 280 kilometers. Defense industry sources said the missile can deliver multiple warheads of 480 kilograms each to their targets.

Each warhead, they said, consists of 54 separate bomblets. The sources said the missile is suitable for both point and area targets and can overcome any anti-ballistic missile system.

Nikolay Gushchin, chief of the Kolomna Mashinostroyeniye design office, said the Iskander-E is different from all of its predecessors. "Technical designs have been incorporated in Iskander-E which also enable the missile to overcome easily an ABM system of an enemy," he said.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that Russia might export the missiles, whether formally or through smugglers.

In Washington, CIA director George Tenet told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday that Moscow continues to be a major arms proliferator to Iran and the Middle East. He said that the new missiles being developed make it easier to deliver biological and chemical weapons.

"We are concerned that countries are acquiring advanced technologies to design, test, and produce highly effective munitions and sophisticated delivery systems," Tenet said.

Gushchin, designer of the Iskander-E, said Russia would seek to sell the missile to such countries as Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria and the United Arab Emirates. But he said the most significant market is East Asia, including Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, and South Korea.

Russia has sold older generation preceding weapons systems to Syria and Yemen. Industry sources said the Iskander is an improvement of the Tochka tactical missile system.

"In my view, there is a very special place in the world arms market for such weapons complexes as Iskander-E," Gushchin told the Russian newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda. "The point is that even a small number of such installations will radically change the layout of power in regional conflicts. Imagine, even an enemy having a superiority in military forces and weapons by a factor of 10 will not dare to start aggression, similar to the aggression of the members of NATO against Yugoslavia, if his cities, air bases, and troops are in the sights of missiles which, in the next 10-15 years, an enemy will not be able to destroy in battle positions and will not be able intercept in flight."

Last week, senior Israeli defense officials acknowledged that Russia has multi-warhead missiles but said they are not being offered to Middle East clients. The officials said the Arrow anti-missile system, developed by the United States and Israel, has not been designed to counter multi-warhead missiles.

The sources, however, said the Iskander-E could be exported to anybody with cash. They said the missile is meant to counter such U.S. weapons as the Army Tactical Missile System.

The Iskander-E does not depend on satellites and can be directed by a man on the ground, the sources said. The missile has an optical seeker that can operate in all weather.

"All of the existing active electronic warfare equipment is powerless against such a homing head," Gushchin said. "There is not a single tactical system in the world other than Iskander-E that can carry out such tasks."