Putin touts 40 ICBMs to boost nation’s arsenal

Russia’s military this year will receive more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of piercing any missile defenses, President Vladimir Putin said in a blunt reminder of the nation’s nuclear might amid tension with the West over Ukraine.

Putin made the statement at the opening of an arms show at a shooting range just west of Moscow, a huge display intended to showcase the nation’s resurgent military might.

Putin vowed to continue a big arms modernization program despite the nation’s economic downturn. He also noted that the military was to start testing its new longrange early warning radar, intended to monitor the west, and later will deploy another one in the east.

“More than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of penetrating any, even the most technologically advanced, missile defense systems will join the nuclear forces in the current year,” he said. In December, Putin said that the military would commission more than 50 ICBMs in 2015. The reason for revising the plan wasn’t immediately clear.