Article Posted on : - Dec 17, 2012

The Topol-M ICBM of Russia. The new 100-tonne missile would replace the Yars and Topol-M missiles of the Russian military.

MOSCOW (AFP): Russia is developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile, the military has announced, in an apparent attempt to remind the United States of Moscow's rocket capacities.

Revealing the existence of the project for the first time, rocket forces commander General Sergei Karakayev said that several test launches of prototypes had already taken place and the work was on the "right path", Russian state media said.

Karakayev said the latest test was on October 24 at the Kapustin Yar firing range in the Astrakhan region of southern Russia.

He appeared to link the solid-fuel missile's development to controversial US plans to install missile defence systems in central Europe which have long angered Moscow.

"The solid fuel missile will allow us to realise possibilities like the creation of a high-precision strategic missile with a non-nuclear warhead with practically global range," Karakayev was quoted as saying by the state Ria Novosti news agency.

He said that the new 100-tonne missile would be able to overcome any existing missile defence system.

Karakayev added the missile would also be effective in combating any future missile defence system that the United States could install in space.

He said that the missile would ultimately replace Russia's new generation of intercontinental missiles the Yars and Topol-M.