Russia is developing a replacement for the world's most devastating intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a move that risks reviving a global nuclear arms race.
Work on the new missile, which has yet to be given a name, started in Moscow in 2009 and could be wrapped up as early as 2017, the head of the secretive military industrial corporation helping develop it has revealed.
In comments to Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that went largely unnoticed, the head of Rosobshemash said the new missile would be capable of overcoming any nuclear missile shield that the Americans or indeed anyone else might build.
"This applies in the fullest sense to the USA's anti-missile defence system and to Nato's (planned) European missile defence system," said Artur Usenkov.
Russia is developing the new missile despite recently negotiating a new landmark Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with the United States which will see both countries make deep cuts in their nuclear arsenals in the years ahead.