Russia Test Launches Topol Ballistic Missile

Russia conducted on Tuesday a successful test launch of a RS-12M Topol intercontinental ballistic missile, the Defense Ministry said.

According to the ministry’s spokesman Col. Igor Egorov, the launch, aimed at testing a prospective warhead, was carried out from the Kapustin Yar range in southern Russia’s Astrakhan Region at 3.12 p.m. Moscow time (12:12 GMT).

The simulated warhead hit a designated target at the Sary-Shagan range in Kazakhstan within set precision parameters, Egorov said.

The RS-12M Topol (NATO reporting name SS-25 Sickle) is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile that has a maximum range of 10,000 kilometers (6,125 miles) and can carry a nuclear warhead with a yield of up to 550 kilotons.

The Topol entered service with the Russian Strategic Missile Forces in 1988 and is being gradually replaced with more advanced Topol-M and Yars mobile missile systems.