In a clear show of military strength amid rising tensions with Nato allies, Kremlin chiefs fired a Topol RS-12M rocket, which has nuclear capabilities, from their Plesetsk space centre to a target 3,700 miles across the country.


The test came a week after Washington and Warsaw formally agreed a deal to host components of a US missile defence shield in Poland. While American officials insist the shield is designed to defend against a potential attack from Iran or North Korea, Moscow has maintained that it is an unacceptable affront to its own security.
The Russian Foreign Ministry last week promised "to react, and not only through diplomatic protests" to the shield's construction.

Following the test strike, Col Alexander Vovk of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces said: "The launch was specially tasked to test the missile's capability to avoid ground-based detection systems."

The missile hit its target "with high precision, demonstrating its capability to deliver pinpoint strikes on well-defended targets," Col Vovk added.

The Topol RS-12M, which is referred to as the SS-25 Sickle by Nato, weighs 45 tonnes, has a maximum range of 6,125 miles and can carry one 550-kiloton nuclear warhead. The development of the weapon began in 1977 and it has been part of the Russian arsenal since the Cold War.
However, earlier models have been updated and their service life extended. Col Vovk said the latest model was less detectable and its path less predictable by shields.

READ MORE -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...US-sheild.html



Russia successfully tested a long-range Topol missile designed to avoid detection by anti-missile defence systems from its Plesetsk launch site, a Russian military spokesman said on Thursday.

"The launch was specially tasked to test the missile's capability to avoid ground-based detection systems," said Colonel Alexander Vovk of the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces.
Washington and Warsaw formally signed a deal last week to station elements of a U.S. missile defence shield in Poland, a move that has aggravated Russian-Western tensions already raw from Moscow's intervention in Georgia.
Russia has heaped scorn on the missile defence system, which the U.S. says is aimed at Iran, and through its Foreign Ministry last week vowed "to react, and not only through diplomatic protests."
The RS-12M Topol, called the SS-25 Sickle by NATO, has a maximum range of 10,000 km (6,125 miles) and can carry one 550-kiloton warhead.
Last October former Russian President Vladimir Putin, now the prime minister, said the country was working on new types of nuclear weapons as part of a "grandiose" plan to boost the country's defenses.
"As part of the commander in chief's order there will be a few more launches of this particular missile before the end of the year," Vovk said.


http://www.reuters.com/article/world...60130720080828

__________________
War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA

READ MORE -- http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/co...ssia_georgia-0

Obviously this worries the US since the ten Missle interceptors would stop all the thousands of Merv Warheads in Russian possesion, the Russian Nuclear armed Subs, Tactical Nucs etc etc etc etc.

__________________
"True Freedom is the Freedom to oppress others"

You give a man a fish you feed him for a day, you teach a man to fish you feed him for life"



Ideology: Self Preservation.

WARNING:

if you see a large green condom flying in your direction you had better duck....

And I bet it's never fired on a target outside the country. I see the US is still inadvertently causing Russia to spend unnecessarily high amounts of money on defenses that will never be used.

__________________
"We consider this our duty - to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence, and fanaticism." -Ahmed Shah Massoud
Ahmed Shah Massoud T-Shirt

Of course they will be used. Russia will use them for target practice.

There are already a few threads with this article in them, including one where I qouted it in its entirety.

STOP POSTING REDUNDANT THREADS!

__________________
sputterman: "Aiding the enemy? If the truth aids the enemy then we are in the wrong war."

And this is how this condom looks like:

__________________
War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA

READ MORE -- http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/co...ssia_georgia-0

Even more reason to put Star Wars on fast track...seems like Reagan was right after all.

__________________
I am not a Democrat or Republican...I am an American.

__________________
War between Russia and Georgia orchestrated from USA

READ MORE -- http://english.pravda.ru/hotspots/co...ssia_georgia-0

Of the foreign countries that we borrow money from, Japan tops the list. And Japan is kind of like a USA-Asia.

__________________
"We consider this our duty - to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence, and fanaticism." -Ahmed Shah Massoud
Ahmed Shah Massoud T-Shirt