Russian Defence Ministry Successfully Test Fires Topol ICBM

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia successfully test-fired the Topol intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Kapustin Yar firing range in the Astrakhan region, the warhead hit the simulated target in Kazakhstan, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

"On November 28, 2019... a combat crew of the Strategic Missile Forces test-fired a Topol intercontinental ballistic missile from the Kapustin Yar range in the Astrakhan region," the ministry said.

It said the warhead hit the simulated target at the Sary-Shagan range in Kazakhstan.

The Topol-M is a strategic intercontinental ballistic missile system that was developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It normally carries a 800 kt warhead, which has the destructive power of 800,000 tonnes of TNT - it is 40 times the destructive power of the atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki, Japan in 1945.