MOSCOW, March 7 (Xinhua) -- Other countries will not be able to create a rival to Russia's Iskander-M mobile short-range ballistic missile systems before 2025, a Russian military official said Wednesday.
"According to the forecasts of the developers, the creation of its analogue by foreign states will not be earlier than in 2025," Russian Ground Force Commander-in-Chief Oleg Salyukov said in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda, literally Red Star, the official newspaper of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The rearmament of the Russian missile formations with Iskander-M missile systems continues as scheduled, said Salyukov.
The Iskander-M, also known as SS-26 Stone, is a highly mobile ballistic missile system capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 500 km with several conventional warhead options weighing between 480 to 700 kg. It can also be capped with a nuclear warhead.
The system is designed to engage moving and stationary targets such as critical infrastructure facilities, missile and long-range artillery systems, air and anti-missile defense weapons, as well as command and communication posts.
The Iskander-M is set to replace the Soviet-made Tochka-U tactical ballistic missiles, which were referred to by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as SS-21 Scarab B.
It was reported that Russia's missile and artillery forces will be fully equipped with the Iskander-M missile systems by 2020.
