Refer to:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/11/17/russia.putin/index.html

http://www.command-post.org/nk/2_archives/017700.html

This story about developing a new class of ballistic missile and reentry vehicle is actually old news. Putin is probably repeating this story for the benefit of the Iranians who are close to achieving nuclear weapon's capability. What Putin is probably talking about is a highly accurate ICBM with a single sophisticated nuclear warhead contained within an advanced Maneuvering Reentry Vehicle (MaRV). Both the United States and the Soviet Union developed MaRVs during the Cold War. Such weapons were intended for "nuclear decapitation" where a surprise first strike could defeat any conceivable ABM system and then take out the otherside's leadership. The United States developed two MaRV designs but then abandoned them. I suspect they were abandoned because MaRVs were considered "destabilizing" against the Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD) strategy. A Russian coworker of mine (who was trained in the Soviet Union to design ICBMs) told me the Soviets never abandoned their MaRV technology but just kept it on the back burner. There's a class of nuclear weapon which are designed to have a very reduced level of radiation (the opposite of neutron radiation enhanced nuclear weapons or neutron bombs). These reduced radiation weapons (sometimes called "RRR" nuclear weapons) are ideal for bunker busting. My guess is that Putin will soon deploy RRR weaponed MaRVs on super accurate ICBMs. The strategic weapons of the Cold War were optimized for MAD (intended as a bluff) and never to be used. However this new class of weapon that Putin announced would be of the sort that could actually be used. Again, I suspect these weapons are intended for Middle Eastern targets. I wonder if the Iranians are paying attention?

Gary