The Russian Strategic Missile Forces have successfully test-launched a RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Plesetsk launch site in north-west Russia.
Russian Defence Ministry Strategic Missile Forces spokesperson colonel Igor Yegorov was quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency as saying that it was launched from a mobile launcher and hit a designated target at the Kura test range in Kamchatka peninsula.
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"The main task of the launch was to confirm the reliability of a batch of missiles manufactured at the Votkinsk plant in Udmurtia," Yegorov said, noting that it met all specified objectives.
Also known as SS-29, the RS-24 Yars is a multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) thermonuclear ballistic missile, designed to replace Russia’s ageing R-36 and UR-100N ICBMs.
Capable of carrying multiple warheads, it is an upgraded version of the Topol-M missile that was first launched in 2007, and features better combat and operational capabilities than its predecessor.
The missile was designed by Yuri Solomonov, the academician of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology and according to the defence ministry, it is expected to form the core of the ground-based component of Russia’s nuclear triad, along with the Topol-M.
Yegorov added: "In future, the SS-24 mobile groups form the basis of the Strategic Missile Forces, which will guarantee the security of the country and its allies until the middle of the 21st century."
