Russia test-fires Yars intercontinental ballistic missile

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Russian Strategic Missile Forces test-fired on Monday, April 14, an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from a launch site in the country’s northwest, the Defense Ministry said, according to RIA Novosti.

According to a ministry’s spokesman, Col. Igor Yegorov, the launch was carried out at 10.40 am Moscow time (06:40 GMT) from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk space center.

The test was successful as the simulated warhead hit a designated target at the Kura test range on Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula, Yegorov said.

The fifth-generation RS-24 Yars (NATO reporting name SS-29) is an upgraded version of the Topol-M ballistic missile that was first tested in 2007.

The RS-24 ICBM can carry multiple independently-targetable nuclear warheads designed to evade missile defense systems to a range of 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles).

The Defense Ministry previously said the Topol-M and RS-24 ballistic missiles would be the mainstays of the ground-based component of Russia’s nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80 percent of the SMF’s arsenal by 2016.