Russian Strategic Rocket Forces (RVSN) has tested its Topol RS-12M intercontinental ballistic missile with a new warhead from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, Arkhangelsk region, Russia, RVSN spokesman colonel Vadim Koval has said.

Interfax news agency quoted the spokesman as saying, “The experimental warhead of the missile hit the designated target with high precision at the testing site on Kamchatka peninsula.”

The test was conducted to check the missile’s durability in extended use, which has been operational for 23 years, the spokesman added.

Topol, designed to breach missile shields, has a range of up to 10,000km and can carry a single nuclear warhead with a yield of 550kt.