"The training-warhead
part of the missiles hit a conditional target accurately
at the landfill of Sary-Shagan in Kazakhstan," the
spokesman said.
This
was the second launch of this type of the missile this
year. The first one was held on October 28 from the Plesetsk
Space Centre in northern Russia.
The
SMF will be rearmed with multiple-warhead RS-24 missiles
instead of the RS-12M Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle) mobile intercontinental
ballistic missile systems, SMF Commander Lt. Gen. Sergei
Karakayev said on Tuesday.
RS-24
is believed to have up to six independent warheads, and
is thus more likely to be able to penetrate anti-missile
defense systems than the single warhead Topol-M.
The
SMF said in August that the Topol-M and RS-24 missiles
would be the mainstay of the ground-based component of
Russia's nuclear triad and would account for no less than
80% of the SMF's arsenal by 2016.
As
of June 2010, the SMF operated at least 50 silo-based
and 18 road-mobile Topol-M missile systems. The RS-24
was commissioned in 2010 after successful testing.
