FIRST OF 225 X-22 AIRBORNE CRUISE MISSILES DESTROYED AT MILITARY AIRFIELD IN VICINITY OF OZERNE, ZHYTOMYR REGION
On Wednesday, November 6 the first of 225 X-22 airborne cruise missiles was destroyed at a military airfield in the vicinity of Ozerne, Zhytomyr region. By July 2004 Ukraine will get rid of these missiles. As Ukrinform's correspondents reported, the almost 12-meter-long missile was cut unto halves, following which its engine muzzle was deformed with a special press.
The scrapping procedure was watched by Ukrainian Defense Ministry and US DOD officials.
The X-22 airborne cruise missile is capable of delivering a nuclear warhead, weighing up to 400 kg, or a demolition- cumulative charge to targets 400 km away. As Maj Gen Robert Bonjovie, deputy director of the US Defense Department's Agency for lessening threats, said, such cruise missiles, the Cold War's product, could hit cities in Europe and the USA and the consequences would have been devastating and disastrous. So, scrapping such weapons is a symbol of changes, the establishment of friendly and partnership relations between our countries.
According to Lt Gen Leonid Fursa, UAF First Deputy Commander, thirty one TU-22 medium-range heavy bombers will be scrapped, as well. Twelve of these are based near Poltava, and 19 planes are stationed near Mykolaiv. The first TU-22 will be scrapped in Poltava on November 12, he said. By 2002's close a total of six TU-22 bombers will be dismantled. Ukraine needs no such amounts of aviation weapons. We have problems with those planes' maintenance and operation because the Defense Ministry is short of funds to carry out maintenance and repair work, Leonid Fursa said. He thanked the US Government for aiding Ukraine in getting rid of superfluous weaponry.
As Lt Gen Fursa further noted, to date the Ukrainian Air Force possesses twelve TU-22M3 bombers, which are equipped with enough weapons of the necessary nomenclature. This is consonant to the Concept of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' development up to 2010, he emphatically stressed.
The technological line to destroy the X-22s was developed through the agency of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry's "Ukrainian Aviation Transportation Company," which is the project's major contractor. The project is being financed through funds, which the US Government allotted within the framework of its agreement with Ukraine of November 25, 1993 "On providing aid to Ukraine in destruction of strategic nuclear armaments and prevention of nuclear proliferation."
The US party, responding to Ukraine's request of October 2000, has been rendering aid to Ukraine in dismantling and scrapping TU-22M bombers, UBL TU-134 training planes and X-22 airborne cruise missiles.
The 21 M. USD contract to this end was signed in July 2002 between the US Defense Department and the Ration Technical Service Company, which is the project's integrating contractor.
Information note:
Following the USSR's disintegration Ukraine found itself in possession of a huge missile-nuclear capability. Ukraine thus inherited 220 strategic delivery vehicles, including 130 RS-18 (SS-19) ICBMs, 46 RS-22 (SS-24) ICBMs, 44 heavy bombers, equipped with 1,068 long-range air-to-surface cruise missiles. In keeping with the START-1 those delivery vehicles were meant for a total of 1,944 nukes. That meant Ukraine being de facto the world's third biggest owner of nuclear arsenals.
On October 30, 2001 the last RS-22 ICBM silo was destroyed in the vicinity of Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region. The event meant Ukraine having fully met its commitments under the Lisbon Protocol to START-1.
Earlier, between 1996 and 1999 all the thirteen missile regiments of RS-18 ICBMs were relieved of duty, 130 liquid propellent RS-18 ICBM silos were destroyed along with 111 RS-18 ICBMs at a facility in Dnipropetrovsk. Nineteen RS-18 missiles were turned over to Russia.
In addition to this, Ukraine dismantled and scrapped 38 TU-160 and TU-95 MS bombers, 487 X-55 airborne cruise missiles. In 1999 Ukraine and Russia reached agreements on Ukraine turning three TU-95 MS aircraft, eight TU-160 bombers, (out of the 38 TU-160s, subject scrapping) over to Russia, along with 581 airborne cruise missiles.
By February 21, 2000 all these were redeployed to Russia.
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
