Russia test-fires ballistic missile to mid-Pacific

Russia carried out the first test launch yesterday of a strategic missile that reached the equator in the Pacific Ocean, a navy spokesman said.

The spokesman said the Sineva missile was launched from the nuclear-powered submarine, Tula, based in the Arctic Barents Sea during military exercises observed by President Dmitry Medvedev.

"For the first time in the history of the Russian Navy the target of the missile was in an equatorial part of the Pacific Ocean rather than the Kura testing ground on the Kamchatka Peninsula," he said.

The spokesman did not specify the area where Russia's newest missile landed. The Sineva missile was introduced into Russia's arsenal last year.

"The area where the dummy warhead landed is legally part of an open sea and the area was closed to navigation and flights at the time of the exercise," he said.

Medvedev's predecessor Vladimir Putin made the revival of the armed forces, neglected for around 10 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, a symbol of Russia's resurgence.

Russia's strategic bombers have restarted regular patrols over the Atlantic Ocean irking Nato and a group of the Northern Fleet ships is on its way to the Caribbean to take part in joint exercises with US foe Venezuela.