Russia successfully test-fired Yars RS-24 silo-based nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile 2412.

“Today, December 24 at 11:00 a.m. Moscow time a detachment of the Strategic Missile Forces conducted a test launch of a Yars silo-based solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with a test warhead,” Colonel Igor Yegorov said.

The Yars RS-24 Is a Russian-made mobile nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile which can be mounted on truck carrier or deployed in silos. The first production of Yars began in 2004.

The fifth-generation RS-24 (NATO reporting name SS-29) is an upgraded version of the Topol-M ballistic missile and can carry multiple independently-targetable nuclear warheads designed to evade missile defense systems. The first RS-24 launch took place at Plesetsk in 2007.

The missile RS-24 is a three-stage, solid propellant, MIRV-capable (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicles) ICBM (InterContinental Ballistic Missile) with a range of 10,500 km.

In October the Russian newspaper Vedemosti reported that another new ballistic missile, codenamed RS-26 Rubezh, would have its first test launch by the end of the year.