MOSCOW, Oct. 28 (UPI) -- Russia launched three intercontinental ballistic missiles Thursday, one from a ground launching site and two from strategic submarines, officials said.
An RS-12M Topol missile designed in the Soviet Union and in service with Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, about 500 miles north of Moscow, and hit its target on the Kura Test Range in Kamchatka Krai, Russia, 20 minutes later, Lt. Col. Alexei Zolotukhin said.
The missile has a maximum range of 6,125 miles and can carry a nuclear warhead with a yield of 550 kilotons, state-owned Russian Information Agency Novosti reported.
The test range was a major ICBM testing site during the Cold War.
Separately, Russia's Pacific Fleet test-fired an RSM-50 Stingray ICBM from the strategic nuclear submarine K-433 St. George the Victorious in the western Pacific Sea of Okhotsk to the Chizha testing ground on the White Sea in northern region of Arkhangelsk, RIA Novosti said.
Russia's Northern Fleet also test-launched an underwater, liquid-fueled Sineva missile from the K-117 Bryansk strategic nuclear submarine in the Barents Sea, a part of the Arctic Ocean north of Norway and Russia.
The weapon, similar to a U.S.-made Trident II missile, reached its intended target at Russia's Kura test range, a Defense Ministry official told the Global Security Newswire.
Moscow plans Friday to conduct the 14th trial flight of its experimental Bulava submarine-based ballistic missile, the independent Interfax news agency reported.
The weapon -- intended as the future cornerstone of Russia's nuclear triad and the most expensive weapons project in the country -- is designed to deliver as many as 10 nuclear warheads as far as 5,000 miles.
