Russia reveals new missile program

Russia has revealed it is fitting its strategic bombers with cruise missiles capable of delivering a massive precision strike thousands of miles away.

The government's Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily announced in a headline that Russia's long-range air force finally has a new weapon and the country now has a strategic cruise missile with a non-nuclear warhead.

ITAR-TASS also quotes an unnamed senior air force commander as saying Russia has broken the US monopoly on the use of long-range conventional cruise missiles. These cruise missiles have a range of more than 3,000 kilometres and can miss a target by no more than a few meters while carrying a warhead of hundreds of kilotons.

The technology appears to be similar to cruise missiles that the United States has long attached to its own intercontinental bombers like the B-2 Stealth bomber.

The announcement followed months of cryptic statements from Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top generals that Russia is developing a new missile program that is a step ahead of any Western rivals - including technology developed by the United States.

The Russian government daily says tests of the new system are being conducted in military exercises now underway in southern Russia. But it notes that Moscow has a long way to go before it can catch up with Washington.

The newspaper estimates that the United States now has 5,000 non-nuclear-tipped cruise missiles with up to 700 of them attached to global B-52 and B-2 bombers.