Russia Tests New Long-Range Air Defense Missile

The Russian Ministry of Defense has test fired a new long-range missile at Sary-Shagan test site in Kazakhstan.

"At the Sary-Shagan training ground of the Strategic Missile Forces (Republic of Kazakhstan), the combat crew of the air and missile defense troops of the Russian Aerospace Forces successfully conducted another test launch of a new missile of the Russian missile defense system," the ministry said in a statement Friday.

"After a series of tests, the new missile defense system confirmed its intended characteristics, and the combat crews successfully completed the task, hitting a conditional target with the specified accuracy," Major General Sergei Grabchuk, commander of the missile defense formation, said.

The Russian MoD published footage from a test site in Kazakhstan, in which the military can be seen installing a missile in a mine and making a test launch.

Earlier, the U.S. Space Command said that the new Russian anti-missile poses a challenge to the interests of the United States in near-Earth space. According to the U.S. military, this Russian system is capable of destroying satellites in low orbit.

Over the past few years, the Russian Ministry of Defense has reported successful tests of a new anti-missile at Kazakhstan.

Grabchuk said in January 2021 that a number of elements of the Moscow missile defense system had already been modernized.