The current spy scandal involved a scientist working in a secret research center near Zhukovsky air base, the Russian air force's top test center, near Moscow. To STRATFOR's knowledge, this center is designing new air-to-air and air-to-surface missiles. The distinctive characteristics of these missiles include supersonic speed, low flight altitude, new elements of stealth technology and extremely accurate guidance systems. The United States currently lacks a reliable defense against these weapons, and its own versions of the missiles lack some advantages.

Despite the Russian military's diminishing production capabilities and financial resources, the country maintains design-technology superiority in other areas, such as new weapons systems for both surface ships and submarines. These include new ship-borne cruise missiles and a supersonic torpedo, Shkval, that is unsurpassed in speed and efficiency. U.S. citizen Edmund Pope was arrested and sent to prison last year in Russia while trying to obtain secrets concerning the Shkval from a contact at a Russia's Bauman Technical University, a leading defense technology center. It is worth noting that Pope was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin after spending only a few weeks in prison, ostensibly for health reasons: Putin said Pope was suffering from cancer, but American doctors who examined him later found no trace of the disease.