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MOSCOW (AFP)--Russia successfully tested a sea-based missile Friday capable of carrying multiple nuclear warheads, the military said, amid continued tension with Washington over missile defense.
A Bulava missile fired from the Dmitry Donskoy submarine in the White Sea, along Russia's northern coast, hit its target on the Kamchatka Peninsula near the Pacific Ocean, navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said in a statement.
"The warhead successfully reached the Kura test site on Kamchatka," he said, describing a flight-path around 6,000 kilometers long.
Four out of the six previous tests of the Bulava were unsuccessful, the Interfax news agency reported.
Friday's launch comes after Moscow has repeatedly expressed its fury over U.S. plans to place a missile-defense radar in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland.
Earlier Friday, the commander of Russia's missile forces announced that the new RS-24 missile - a land-based weapon that Moscow says is designed to overcome the U.S. missile shield -- would be deployed starting in December 2009.
The Bulava, which can be equipped with up to 10 individually targeted nuclear warheads, has a maximum range of 8,000 kilometers and was first successfully tested in December 2005.
It is the sea-based version of the Topol-M, designed to be launched from Moscow's newest Borei class of submarines.
-Dow Jones Newswires, 201-938-5500
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 28, 2008 15:20 ET (20:20 GMT)

Publié le 28 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones