MOSCOW, May 27 (UPI) -- The Russian Air Force has successfully conducted a test of the X-555 cruise missile.
U.S. analysts Friday were commencing their study of the implications of the Russian announcement.
The X-555 is the newest smart precision weapon utilizing the most modern technologies, Lt. Gen. Alexander Rakhmanov, deputy head of the weapons directorate of the Russian military forces, said according to an Interfax news agency report.
"Our high-precision aircraft-based missile has been recently demonstrated. From a distance of 2,000 kilometers the missile hit the target as they say in the air force 'right in the window,'" Rakhmanov said.
Rakhmanov said all of Russia's modern high-precision weapons technologies had been used to create the new missile. "This is a modernization of an old missile with use of all newest technologies," he said.
The X-555 missile is a conventional modification of the nuclear-tipped X-55 that had been designed for strategic bomber aircraft like the Tupolev Tu-160 or the Tu-95. It has a range of more than 1,500 kilometers and uses first-generation cruise missile targeting, including a radar scanner and an onboard computer that compares the terrain with a digital map, making the missile independent from satellite-based navigation systems.
