Russia launches long-range ballistic, cruise missiles

Did you know about this? Bill Gertz reports that

Russia’s armed forces conducted a “massive” nuclear forces exercise on Thursday simulating NATO and U.S. nuclear attacks and involving several long-range ballistic and cruise missile firings.

For Thursday’s drills, an SS-25 road-mobile intercontinental missile, and two multiple-warhead SS-N-23 submarine-launched ballistic missiles were flight-tested.

The SS-25 was launched from the Plesetsk test site about 500 miles north of Moscow to the Kura test site in Kamchatka some 3,500 miles away.

The SS-N-23 was fired from a Delta IV missile submarine from the Barents Sea to Kamchatka.

A second submarine, also a Delta III, fired a second SSN-N-23 from the Sea of Okhotsk near the Pacific to the Chizha test site at the Kanin Peninsula, some 3,300 miles away.

It was Russia’s first submarine missile test launch from the Pacific in more than a decade, highlighting Russia’s shift in focus to the Pacific region.

Russian and Chinese naval forces are set to conduct joint military exercises in the region in the near future.

The missile defense interceptor was an ABM-3 Gazelle missile defense interceptor, that was fired from the Sarys Shagan test site. In its deployed state, the interceptor is armed with a 10-kiloton nuclear warhead.

“Strategic bombers, missile-carrying submarines of the Pacific and Northern fleets, mobile ground-based strategic missile systems and aerospace defense forces and resources were deployed in the training. Furthermore, large units of missile troops and artillery of the Southern and Central military districts were also deployed in the training,” the new agency said.

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