RUSSIA SUCCESSFULLY TESTS INTERCONTINENTAL BALLISTIC MISSILE, AMID ROW WITH U.S.

RUSSIA has conducted its second intercontinental ballistic missile test in less than a month as it stepped up its campaign against a US-backed interceptor system for Europe.

News reports said the Sineva missile was launched from a Russian submarine in the Barents Sea and later successfully hit its target on the opposite side of the country on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

"The launch was conducted from a submerged position," defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told Russian news agencies.

"The warheads hit the test range on schedule," he added.

The Sineva submarine-launched missile is one of the most recent additions to Russia's nuclear arsenal and was only fully tested for the first time in 2008.

Each missile carries up to 10 warheads and has a range of more than 11,000 kilometres.

[link to www.heraldsun.com.au]