Article Posted on : - Oct 23, 2008

Over 100 silo-based Stilettos are currently in service with the SMF. RIA Novosti photo

MOSCOW (BNS): Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) has successfully launched a Stiletto Inter Continental Ballistic Missile on Wednesday, the SMF said. The RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) was launched from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan.

�The launch confirmed the decision to extend the service life of one of our most reliable missile complexes,� the SMF said in a statement quoted in RIA Novosti. Stiletto ICBMs, operational for past 29 years, will remain on combat duty beyond 2010, thanks to the successful test. Stiletto missile has a combat range of over 9,600 km.

Though the test was termed part of the regular SMF exercise to test the performance of missiles, it came at a time when the US-Russian relation over the Ballistic Missile Defence and Georgia war has worsened to a new low in the post-Cold War era.

RIA Novosti said over the past five years Russia conducted 31 test launches of RS-12M (SS-25 Sickle), R-18 (SS-19 Stiletto) and RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) ICBMs and will double the number of test launches after 2009. Russia extended the service life of the Stiletto missile to 31 years following a successful test launch in October 2007.

Over 100 silo-based Stilettos are currently in service with the SMF, with each missile carrying six 550-kiloton warheads, RIA Novosti said.

According to the report, the Stilettos would be gradually replaced by new RS-24 ICBMs, equipped with MIRV (Multiple Independently Targetable Reentry Vehicle) warheads�an ICBM that can carry multiple warheads in a single missile. The report noted, that the new missile is �characterised by its high missile-defence penetration capability.�