Missile defense

US boosts its missile defenses to use nuclear arms at minimal cost - Russian Ministry

The United States has been stepping up its missile shield capabilities to gain a strategic advantage by getting an opportunity to use nuclear weapons "at minimal costs," a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman said on Thursday.

"By boosting its missile defense capabilities, the United States is seeking to gain strategic advantage through laying the basis for using nuclear weapons at minimal costs. This may have serious consequences in the security sphere," Defense Ministry spokesman Alexander Yemelyanov said during the Russian-Chinese briefing on missile shield issues on the sidelines of the first committee of the UN General Assembly.

He said that "first of all, the existence of the global missile defense system lowers the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons by creating the illusion of impunity for the sudden use of strategic offensive weapons under the ‘missile defense umbrella’," he said.