MOSCOW - Russia successfully test-launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from a nuclear-powered submarine from the area of the North Pole, the defense minister said on Sunday. The nuclear submarine K-84 launched the missile Saturday, and all three test warheads hit their target, a testing range in the Archangelsk region on the Barents Sea, Sergei Ivanov reported to President Vladimir Putin in televised comments.
"The launch was successful" he said, adding that it had been challenging: Aiming from the North Pole, where the concepts of latitude and longitude are relative, makes this launch difficult.Â’ Ivanov suggested it was the first time a test-launch from the area had been conducted by the Russian military in 11 years.
He spoke days after an unsuccessful test of a new sea-based intercontinental ballistic missile. An experimental Bulava missile launched from a submerged nuclear submarine in the White Sea on Thursday veered off its designated flight path and fell into the sea, according to the Defense Ministry. |