Russia test-fires RS-24 ICBM to succeed SS-18 Satan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Russia announced last week it carried out a successful test launch of a new intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicle -- MIRV -- warheads.

"All the warheads hit the designated areas at the Kura testing grounds on the Kamchatka peninsula. All the tasks in the test have been accomplished," RIA Novosti quoted a spokesman for the Strategic Missile Forces press service as saying.

The report said the new RS-24 ICBM was test-fired on Nov. 26 from the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia. It said the firing exercise was carried out to gather information about the ICBM's technical characteristics and to confirm that it was sufficiently developed and reliable to begin operational deployment with the Strategic Missile Forces.

The report noted that the still new and relatively untested RS-24 was first fired on May 29, 2007. A second test launch was carried out on Dec. 25, 2007.

The commander of Strategic Missile Forces, three-star Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, pledged in October that the RS-24 ICBM would be operationally deployed next year, despite the relatively few test firings it has undergone so far.

RIA Novosti also noted Solovtsov's pledge that deploying the RS-24 would "strengthen Russia's nuclear deterrence." The general said he was confident of the RS-24's abilities to evade U.S. ballistic missile defense systems, including the proposed 10 Ground-based Mid-course Interceptors that are to be deployed in Poland to defend the United States and Western Europe against any Iranian nuclear ICBM threat in the future.

The RS-24 is designed to replace the venerable, famous and formidable RS-20 -- NATO designation SS-18 Satan MIRV-capable -- and SS-19 missiles. The RS-24 is also designed to remain operable until at least 2050.

Given the repeatedly well-documented achievements of Russian military and missile engineers in keeping weapons systems, including complex missiles and missile launching equipment, running for decades after their projected expiration dates, this does not appear to be an unrealistic operational goal.

RIA Novosti said the new RS-24 is designed to be deployed both in "hard," deep, concrete survivable firing silos and also to be road-mobile. It will join the already deployed Topol-M single warhead intercontinental ballistic missile as the main ground-based weapons of the Strategic Missile Forces in the 21st century, the report cited Solovtsov as saying.

Russia's far-ranging overseas naval squadron, headed by the guided-missile battle cruiser Pyotr Veliky ("Peter the Great") and the anti-submarine warfare vessel Admiral Chabanenko, finished a two-day visit to Venezuela Tuesday.

RIA Novosti said the Pyotr Veliky and Admiral Chabanenko, accompanied by two other Russian ships, carried out sea rescue exercises and other maneuvers as well as practicing live-firing heavy gun exercises. Other exercises involved practicing counter-terrorism and counter-drug trafficking operations using ship-launched helicopters and other supporting aircraft, the report said.

After the exercises, the Russian squadron sailed to Venezuela Tuesday. RIA Novosti said it was the first such call to the oil-rich South American nation by any Russian naval force since the end of the Cold War. The visit was also timed to follow the state visit to Venezuela of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev last week. Medvedev has continued to carry out faithfully the tough, muscle-flexing policies of his predecessor, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, dispelling many Western predictions that he would prove to be kinder, gentler and more liberal than his formidable predecessor.

RIA Novosti pointedly noted that the Kremlin approved the Russian warships' visit to Venezuela and the Caribbean as its answer to the beefed-up U.S. naval presence in the Black Sea -- regarded by Russians as their private lake since the time of Czarina Catherine the Great 220 years ago -- following the Russian military conquest of one-third of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the Caucasus in a rapid five-day blitzkrieg from Aug. 8-12. Russia is also furious at the outgoing Bush administration for its determination to deploy Ground-based Mid-course Interceptors -- GBIs -- in Poland to defend the U.S. East Coast and Western Europe against the possible future threat of Iranian nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The Russian show of naval force to Venezuela and throughout the Caribbean also follows the weeklong visit in October to a Venezuelan air base of two supersonic Tupolev Tu-160 White Swan strategic bombers (NATO designation Blackjack). It was the most formidable deployment of Russian nuclear potential in any country in the Western Hemisphere since Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev withdrew Russian nuclear-armed missiles from Cuba at the end of 1962. Fiercely anti-American Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last week personally boarded the Admiral Chabanenko and met its crew. Chavez and Medvedev have invited other Latin American nations to participate in their planned future joint naval maneuvers.