Russia test-fires new interceptor missile

The Russian military has successfully test-fired a new interceptor missile at the Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

According to previous Russian Defence Ministry reports, the new missile was successfully tested at the Sary-Shagan test site in February, April and July 2018.

The new missile, which can reach a speed of 4 km per second, has no equal in the world, Sputnik news quoted the Ministry's official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda as saying.

The missile will possibly be put on mass production in the near future and gradually replace the models in service since 1995, the newspaper said.

Russia is in the process of implementing a large-scale rearmament program, which was announced in 2010. The country aims to upgrade 70 per cent of its military equipment by 2020.

During the annual address to the Federal Assembly on March 1, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow had developed a number of advanced weapons, including combat laser systems, intercontinental underwater drones capable of operating at large depths and moving several times faster than all existing ships, a prospective hypersonic missile and nuclear-powered cruise missiles.

--IANS

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