The test was confirmed by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The newspapers successfully hit the designated target at the Kura Test Range, an area on the Kamchatka Peninsula used since the 50 years to test Russian ICBMs.
The RS-24 'Yars' (code-named Nato SS-29) is a fifth generation intercontinental ballistic missile. It is an updated version of the 'Topol-M' ballistic missile and has been tested and officially presented in the 2007, in response to the installation of NATO's missile shield in Poland.
The RS-24 is equipped with a Mirv head (likely Marv) capable of carrying multiple independent warheads designed to evade all existing missile defense systems and hit targets at a maximum distance of twelve thousand kilometers with an 50 meter error.
The Teikovo division, in central Russia, was the first to receive in September of the 2012 the new fifth-generation missiles with two regiments and 18 missiles ready for combat. Two other mobile regiments equipped the 39a Guards Rocket Division, in Novosibirsk, Siberia, while the 28th Guards Rocket Division, in Kozelsk, in central Russia was equipped with the "silo-based" version. There would be less than fifty SS-29 deployed to date.
Russia plans to increase annual spending on nuclear weapons by more than 50 per cent over the next three years for a total investment of 1,4 billion dollars by the 2016. The Ministry of Defense has already announced the withdrawal of almost all the now obsolete ICBMs such as the SS-18 'Satan', SS-19 'Stiletto' and SS-25 'Sickle' (Topol) and replace them with SS- 27 'Sickle -B '(Topol-M) and RS-24' Yars' missiles within the 2021.
By the 2016, 80 percent of Russian Strategic Missile Missile Forces will be composed of 'Yars' and 'Topol-M'. Moscow currently has 326 intercontinental ballistic missiles with about 1.050 warheads ready to launch (Mirv-Marv).
Franco Iacch
