Russia has successfully test-fired the RS 12M Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from Kapustin Yar landfill in Russia’s Astrakhan region, according to the country’s defence ministry.
“The training-warhead part of the missiles hit a conditional target accurately at the landfill of Sary-Shagan in Kazakhstan,” a spokesman said.
The RS-12M Topol is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile with a maximum range of 10,000km (6,125 miles) which can carry a nuclear warhead with a yield of 550kt, according to RIA Novosti.
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) commander lieutenant general Sergei Karakayev said SMF will be rearmed with multiple-warhead RS-24 missiles instead of the RS-12M Topol-M missile systems.
“Next year the SMF will hold ten intercontinental ballistic missile launches, twice as many as in 2010,” Karakayev said.
