Russia tests Yars ICBM successfully

MOSCOW -- Russia has successfully tested a Yars inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM), the Defense Ministry said Monday.

"The launch was carried out at 10:40 Moscow time (0640 GMT)," Interfax news agency quoted ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov as saying.

According to Yegorov, the test's objective was to check reliability of the missiles of that type.

The Yars was launched from the sub-polar Plesetsk site, and the missile hit the target at the Kura range in the far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula.

A Yars (RS-24) ICBM carries multiple warheads. It will gradually replace the elder-generation Topol (RS-12M) and Stiletto (RS-18) missiles.

Currently, 15 Yars mobile missile systems are deployed at the divisions in Novosibirsk and Tomsk in Siberia.

Russia said earlier that two more divisions will also be armed with Yars and 16 launches of the ICBMs will be conducted in total in 2014 for various training, testing and commercial tasks.