The Russian missile industry can quickly restore the production of medium-range missiles if necessary, a source in the Russian defence industry has told Interfax-AVN.
"All the necessary technical and production prerequisite are in place. For instance, the achievements in research and technology gained in the development of the Skorost missile system in the 1980s may become a basis for manufacturing medium-range missiles," he told the agency.
Some foreign media reported earlier that Russia was considering withdrawal from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty between the USSR and the USA. However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Yakovenko said Moscow continued to be committed to the treaty.
"The Skorost system was developed in response to the deployment of US Pershing-2 missiles in Europe. In its characteristics, it was not inferior to its foreign counterpart," the source said.
He said the Skorost system was developed in less than a year through cooperation between several enterprises led by the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute. Its development was, however, suspended soon after test launches began because the USSR and the USA concluded the INF Treaty.
According to the agency's source, the Skorost system has a range of up to 2,500 km, a deployment time of two minutes from the combat ready position, and nine minutes from the travelling position.
"The missile was capable of carrying a more powerful warhead than Pershing-2," the source said.
According to him, intermediate-range missile groups could considerably increase the potential of the Missile Forces in potentially dangerous strategic areas. "It is especially important with the mass decommissioning of the strategic missiles past the end of their service life. The cost of intermediate-range missiles is many times lower than that of the Topol-M missiles, with which the Russian Strategic Missile Forces are being equipped," the source said.
He said the development of new missiles with a range of 500-600 km, based on existing Iskander-E tactical missile systems, was also a possibility. "This, however, will be more costly and may take up to five or six years," he said.
Under the its 1987 treaty with the USA on the reduction of intermediate-range (1,000-5,500 km) and shorter-range (500-1,000 km) missiles, the USSR (the Russian Federation) scrapped five types of missiles, including three intermediate-range missile types (RSD-10, R-12, and R-14), a considerable number of which were deployed in the Far East, and two types of short-range missiles (OTR-22 and OTR-23). Altogether, the USSR (the Russian Federation) scrapped 1,000 more missiles than the USA, and 2.8 times as many nuclear warheads.

Source: Interfax news agency, Moscow
BBC Monitoring