Russia successfully tests ICBM loaded with warheads

Russia has tested an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads up to 6,800 miles. 

The silo-based RS-24 Yars ICBM was fired from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia before landing thousands of miles away in the country’s Far East peninsula of Kamchatka.

The Russian Defense Ministry explained in a statement: ‘The test launch of a RS-24 Yars silo-based solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, equipped with a multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle [MIRV] was carried out by a unit of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces,’ according to state-funded agency Sputnik. 

The intention of the test was to ensure the reliability of a batch of the missiles. 

Its testing comes amid tension on Russia’s east – where the country invaded and annexed part of Ukraine – and west – where it has offered support to Stalinist dictatorship North Korea as it develops a nuclear programme.  

The ministry explained that those ‘goals have been achieved, all tasks have been fulfilled’. 

It added: ‘The experimental warheads arrived at the designated area at the Kura training ground on the Kamchatka peninsula.’ 

Its testing comes amid tension on Russia’s east – where the country invaded and annexed part of Ukraine – and west – where it has offered support to Stalinist dictatorship North Korea as it develops a nuclear programme. Pictured: The ICBM before a parade earlier this year 

The missile was fired from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome (pictured) 

Russia is aiming to entirely switch over to the Yars missiles, which were first introduced in 2010, according to President Vladimir Putin.

The missiles are capable of carrying numerous warheads, each capable of being targeted independently.  

It can be fired from both a fixed point and also a mobile launcher. 

It is designed to replace the R-36 and UR-100N missiles, which have been in use for nearly half a century.