Russia will fire off six intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) next year from the northwestern Plesetsk space port and the southwestern Kapustin Yar launch site, the head of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said on Tuesday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 24th December, 2019) Russia will fire off six intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) next year from the northwestern Plesetsk space port and the southwestern Kapustin Yar launch site, the head of Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said on Tuesday."We plan to launch six ICBMs in 2020, five of them from the Plesetsk space port," Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev told reporters after an expanded Ministry Defense panel concluded in Moscow.
Russia test-fired five ICBMs this year, he added.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that testing of the new silo-based heavy Sarmat ICBM would end in 2021. It is set to become the new mainstay of Russia's nuclear deterrent, alongside the Yars ballistic missile and the Avangard nuclear-capable hypersonic weapon.
Col. Gen. Karakayev estimated that the share of modern missile systems in the arsenal of the Strategic Missile Forces would increase to 76 percent by the end of this year, reaching 100 percent in 2024.
