Russia: Missile shield to be useless

MOSCOW - Russia has successfully tested a hypersonic weapon capable of penetrating any prospective missile shield, a senior general said Thursday.

The prototype weapon proved it could maneuver so quickly as to make "any missile defense useless," Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of the General Staff of the Russian armed forces, said at a news conference.

He said that the prototype of a new hypersonic vehicle had proved its ability to maneuver in orbit, thereby making it able to dodge an enemy's missile shield.

"The flying vehicle changed both the altitude and direction of its flight," Baluyevsky said. "During the experiment conducted yesterday, we proved that it's possible to develop weapons that would make any missile defense useless."

Baluyevsky's comment followed a statement by President Vladimir Putin, who said Wednesday after attending rocket launches from the Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia that experiments conducted during the military maneuvers had proved that Russia could build new strategic weapons that would be unrivaled in the world.

Putin said that the development of new weapons was not directed against the United States, and Baluyevsky said the experiment shouldn't be seen as Russia's response to U.S. missile defense plans.

In Washington, Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked by reporters about the Putin statement.

"If you're in that business - intercontinental ballistic missiles and warheads - you want them to be survivable, and maneuverability is one way to increase their survivability against any potential defenses," he said.

Putin said that Russia had no intention of immediately deploying new weapons.

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