New generation Russian nuclear missile fails first launch test

Sep 28, 2011, 10:27 GMT

Moscow - An experimental new generation Russian intercontinental ballistic missile failed its first launch test on Tuesday, crashing into a remote forested region.

The failure of the launch, at the Peletsk space centre in the Arctic region, was due to a problem in the missile's first stage, the Ministry of Defence said in a statement statement.

A team from the Moscow Institute of Technology, which designed the missile, was at the crash site some 10 kilometres downrange from Peletsk.

No people had been harmed or property damaged, the statement said.

Once fully developed, the missile is intended to replace Russia's Topol-M missile, the Kremlin's current mainline weapon for making nuclear strikes at extreme long range.

The new missile will be able to strike any northern hemisphere land target with six atomic warheads and, unlike the Topol-M, will be equipped with protection systems able to defeat any anti-missile weapon fired against it, an Interfax news agency report said.

In recent months, the Kremlin has threatened to deploy advanced strategic weapons and possibly target them at NATO states, if NATO goes through with a plan to field a missile defence system in eastern Europe.

Washington has pushed the missile defence plan as necessary to protect NATO states from a possible missile strike from the Middle East.

Russia has said that the missile defence system would allow NATO to shoot down Russian missiles immediately after launch, and has threatened to field new weapons of its own in retaliation.