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MOSCOW: Russia on Wednesday successfully test-fired for the third time its new RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile, designed to counter air defence systems like the controversial US missile shield.
The missile was fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north Russia and hit targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula that juts into the Pacific Ocean 6,000 kilometres to the east, Russian news agencies reported.
"The targets that were set were reached. The tasks were fully carried out," the commander of Russia's strategic missile forces, Nikolai Solovtsov, was quoted as saying by Interfax.
"The deployment of the RS-24 missiles, which have a detachable warhead, strengthens the military options of the Russian missile forces in overcoming missile defence systems."
Military spokesman Alexei Zolotukhin told Interfax that "the missile... was launched from a mobile launcher. This is the third test-firing of the RS-24 in the last two years."
Russia in May 2007 first test-fired the RS-24, which the military has said is designed to overcome air-defence systems such as the controversial US missile shield planned for deployment in eastern Europe.
The second test, which was also successful, was in December 2007. Experts and Russian news agencies have said the missile is capable of carrying three nuclear warheads.
The new test comes after Moscow has repeatedly expressed its fury over US plans to place a missile defence radar system in the Czech Republic and linked interceptor missiles in Poland.
Both President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have urged Barack Obama to drop the plans when he takes over the White House in January but the US president-elect has yet to reveal his intentions. - AFP/de
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