Article Posted on : - Apr 10, 2010

MOSCOW (BNS): A day after Russia and the United States signed a new START treaty; the commander of Russia's space forces said Russia has no plans to deploy weapons of any kind in space.

According to Russian news agency Ria Novosti, some analysts have suggested that Russia could deploy space weapons as part of measures to counter controversial U.S. plans to build missile shields in Europe.

"We have no such plans," Maj. Gen. Oleg Ostapenko told a news conference in Moscow. Signing of the new treaty would not affect the activities and plans of the Russian Space Forces, he added.

"The plans and tasks set by the commander-in-chief, the president, have not changed and are being developed at a determined pace," Ostapenko was quoted as saying.

He added that changes would only be made if "breakthrough technologies emerge that affect the plans and budgets."

United States and the Soviet Union have developed several orbital weapons systems during the Cold War but it was largely halted after the 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the 1979 SALT II Treaty came into force.

In 2008, Russia and China proposed a draft international treaty to ban the deployment of weapons of any kind in space and to prohibit the use of force against space objects, the report said.