Russia launches piercing missile

Russia staged yesterday the first successful test-launch of a new intercontinental missile designed to pierce the defence system now being deployed by Nato despite Moscow’s fierce complaints.

Deployment comes four days after Nato activated defence shield

The highly-symbolic launch came just four days after the alliance formally activated the first stage of a defence shield whose deployment Russia has bitterly opposed out of fears that it may target its own vast nuclear arsenal.

The missile “should raise the combat capabilities of Russia’s Strategic Nuclear Forces, including by improving their ability to overcome missile defence systems,” defence ministry spokesman Vadim Koval told RIA Novosti.

A military source told the Interfax news agency that the launch was only the second ever conducted in the top-secret programme. The source said the first failed on September 27 when the missile suffered an undisclosed malfunction and crashed only 10 kilometres from the launch site.

The rocket still has no formal name but is being billed by the military as a “fifth generation” weapon that substantially upgrades the technology used by its already-feared Topol-M and Yars systems.

“This is one of the... measures being developed by Russia’s military and political leadership in response to the US deployment of a global anti-missile system,” former strategic forces director Viktor Yesin told Interfax.

Little has been revealed about the weapon except its purported ability to better avoid being shot down.