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Russian Strategic Missile Force Stripped of Oversight for Two Space Forces
By Simon Saradzhyan
Spacenews.com Correspondent
posted: 05:13 pm ET
25 January 2001
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russian_missile_force_010125MOSCOW Russian President Vladimir Putins Security Council ruled Jan. 25 to strip Russias Strategic Missile Force (RVSN) of two key branches responsible for the countrys military space program. The council made the Space Missile Force (VKS) an independent arm of service. RVSN, which operates all of Russias intercontinental ballistic missiles and is the backbone of the countrys strategic nuclear triad, in 1997 received control of VKS, which launches and operates most of Russias military satellites. Both VKS and the Forces of Rocket and Space Defense, which is responsible for running Russias space-based early-warning system and tracking enemy spacecraft, will become independent of RVSN in 2001, Yevgeny Shaposhnikov, Putins aerospace aide, told reporters after the councils session. The councils decision came after Putin criticized the Russian Aviation and Space Agency and Defense Ministry for failing to fulfill the 1996-2000 plan to develop Russias space industry. Putin did not name the two agencies, but told reporters that "neither of the two directions military and civil have anything to boast." The president went on to note that "scientific research stopped" and Russias 111 operating satellites are on the brink of "exhaustion." More than 70 percent of these satellites are past their initial service lives, according to Yuri Koptev, director-general of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency. Some 70 percent of Russias satellite fleet is for either military or military-civil use, according to Valery Grin, deputy commander of RVSN.
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