Arya News - Russian missile defenses are becoming increasingly sophisticated and may render British and French nuclear weapons ineffective, states the UK-based defense think tank RUSI.
"The nuclear forces of the UK and France consist of strategic submarines armed with intercontinental ballistic missiles that are on operational patrol," Igor Korotchenko, editor in chief of National Defense magazine, tells Sputnik. "The S-500 [Prometey system] is specifically designed to intercept targets of this type." The S-500 Prometey He notes that the British strategic forces use Trident-2 submarine-launched intercontinental ballistic missiles, while their French counterparts rely on domestically developed M51 ballistic missiles. Mobile and Highly Efficient An important feature of the S-500 is its mobility: The expert underscores that no one can provide accurate estimates of what would happen in an actual nuclear conflict. However, as S-500 production scales and more regiments are deployed, its capacity to intercept increasing numbers of potential enemy ICBMs grows.