Russia is flexing its military muscles worldwide

09:37 GMT, October 13, 2008 In one of the biggest exercise of its kind since the Cold War, Russia conducted a triple missile firing on Sunday flexing its nuke muscle. To start this “Missile Sunday”, Russia test-fired a Topol ICBM -2 intercontinental ballistic missile early in the morning. President Dmitry Medvedev was present during the successful test-firing of the 21-year-old Topol from the Plesetsk space center in northern Russia. After the test Medvedev confirmed that the missile hit its target thousands of kilometers to the east on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Russian news agencies confirmed, that just after this launch nuclear-powered Russian submarines fired two Sineva ballistic missiles during a military exercise of the Northern Fleet in the Barents Sea. “The exercises test Russia's strategic and regional deterrent and the structures of the Northern Fleet, particularly in relation to the naval strategic nuclear forces,” the Russian News Agency Ria Novosti said.

Booth tests come amid increasingly strained ties with the United States following the war with Georgia and the U.S. plans for a missile-defence system based in Poland and the Czech Republic.

Russia underlines its military capabilities worldwide. It is sending a naval squadron to Venezuela for November exercises, a Western Hemisphere deployment unprecedented since the Cold War. Last year, then-President Vladimir Putin ordered the resumption of global patrols by strategic bombers.

“We will strengthen our military capability, we will adopt new types of weapons, but we will continue to test the traditional ballistic missiles we have in service,” Medvedev said to reporters.

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The RS-12M Topol (NATO: SS-25 Sickle) is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) nearly the same size and shape as the U.S. Minuteman ICBM. The first Topol missiles became operational in 1985.
Although the service life of the SS-25 was extended to 21 years after a series of successful test launches last year, the missile will be progressively retired over the next decade and be replaced by a mobile version of the Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle B) missile.

Russian officials pointed out, that the upgraded versions of the Topol missile can avoid any U.S. made missile defence system.

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See also:

- Russian missile test sends another sign to Washington
http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/131/

- Russian Topol RS-12M tested and upgraded to defeat the U.S. missile shield
http://www.defpro.com/daily/details/112/