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MOSCOW - Russia successfully tested Friday a sea-based missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, the military said, amid continued tension with Washington over missile defence.
A Bulava missile fired from the Dmitry Donskoy submarine in the White Sea, along Russia's northern coast, hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula near the Pacific Ocean, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said in a statement.
"The warhead successfully reached the Kura test site on Kamchatka," he said, describing a flight-path around 6,000 kilometres (4,000 miles) in length.
Four out of the six previous tests of the Bulava were unsuccessful, the Interfax news agency reported.
Friday's launch comes after Moscow has repeatedly expressed its fury over US plans to place a missile defence radar system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland.
Earlier on Friday, the commander of Russia's missile forces announced that their new RS-24 missile -- a land-based weapon that Moscow says is designed to overcome the US missile shield -- would be deployed from December 2009.
The Bulava, which can be equipped with up to 10 individually targeted nuclear warheads, has a maximum range of 8,000 kilometres (5,000 miles) and was first successfully tested in December 2005.
It is the sea-based version of the Topol-M, designed to be launched from Moscow's newest Borei class of submarines.
- AFP /ls
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