Russia on Wednesday staged the first successful test-launch of a new intercontinental missile designed to penetrate the defence system now being deployed by NATO despite Moscow’s fierce complaints.
The highly-symbolic launch came just days after alliance formally activated the first stage of a missile defence shield whose deployment Russia has bitterly opposed out of fears that it may target its own vast nuclear arsenal.
‘The dummy warhead reached its target area at the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The set goals of the launch were reached,’ Interfax quoted Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces spokesman Vadim Koval as saying.
The rocket still has no formal name but is being billed by the military as a ‘fifth generation’ weapon that substantially upgrades the technology used by its already-feared feared Topol-M and Yars systems.