From RIA Novosti:  Russia may develop a non-nuclear precision-guided payload capability for its new hundred-ton class liquid-fueled ICBM if need be, Strategic Missile Forces (RSVN) Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said on Friday.

"The availability of a powerful liquid-fueled ICBM allows us the capability of creating a strategic high-accuracy weapons system with a conventional payload with practically global range, if the US does not pull back from its program for creating such missile systems," he said.

The new liquid-fuel ICBM will be able to penetrate any missile defense system likely to emerge in the near future, he said.

"The higher energy provided by liquid fuels gives it more varied and effective methods of countermeasures against global missile defense screens including space-based elements of those systems," he said. . . .

It is the first formal announcement from the RSVN command that the fifth-generation solid-fueled ICBM would be deployed; but previously unnamed sources had said it would be deployed by 2014.  (photo: Voice of Russia)

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