Russia’s response to possible US withdrawal from the Agreement on the destruction of ballistic missiles of medium and shorter range may be the resumption of production of upgraded missiles “Courier”, said the “Military-industrial courier” a source in the rocket and space industry.
“If the Americans will return to the location of the IRBM [ballistic medium-range missiles] in Europe, as it was before the implementation of the aforementioned agreement, it would mean that the flight time of American ballistic missiles the Russian strategic targets in the European part of the country will be reduced to 7-10 minutes,” — said the source publication.
In this case, Russia could deploy in the Arctic the means of destruction, where the flight time to the American strategic objects will be also a few minutes. As a weapon, the source has proposed to use “Couriers”.
Solid-fuel Intercontinental ballistic missile 15Ж59 “Courier” (according to NATO classification — SS-X-26) has a small length (11.2 m) and weight (15 tons), so that is characterized by multiplicity-based. Weapons tested four times, the development collapsed in 1991 after the signing on 6 October of the same year, USSR agreement with the United States on the termination of the development of mobile ICBMs effortless class.