Missile defense

Russia Test Fires Intercontinental Ballistic Missile

Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces have successfully test-fired an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) during a military exercise, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced on September 9, according to TASS news agency.

The test launch of the nuclear-capable Topol-M  (aka RS12M2/NATO reporting name SS-27) or more advanced Topol MR (aka SR-24 Yars/NATO reporting name SS-27 Mod2) ICBM—the defense ministry did not specify the missile type—took place at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome,  in Arkhangelsk Oblast, approximately 800 kilometers north of Moscow.

One of the rationales behind the missile launch was to test whether the ICBM can penetrate advanced missile defense systems. According to the defense ministry, the ICBM succeeded in doing so and successfully destroyed a target at a testing ground on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia’s Far East.