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Vladimir Putin will test the world's largest ballistic missile by flying it over the South Pole, a shocking report by state media has revealed before being rapidly censored. The Russian dictator is determined to flex his nuclear muscle to the West and will put his first regiment to be armed with the apocalypse 208-ton intercontinental nuclear weapon - the RS-28 Sarmat, aka 'Satan 2' - on 'combat duty' next month. This is despite an astonishing admission that the 'unstoppable' 15,880mph doomsday missile - as tall as a 14-storey tower block - is not properly tested. Putin's own state news agency...

Russia is introducing a fourth generation automated control systems for its Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) with triple-redundant communication links, a media report said. Izvestia newspaper quoting SMF Commander Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said, the new automated control systems are based on digital alert transmission systems. "The RSVN is currently introducing fourth generation automated control systems. Each system will have guaranteed triple communications redundancy," he was quoted as saying. The strategic nuclear launch systems are ageing hence the importance of command and control links, he added. The Strategic Missile Forces reportedly have a total of 538 ICBMs, including 306 SS-25 Sickle...

Russia is developing a replacement for the world's most devastating intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in a move that risks reviving a global nuclear arms race. Work on the new missile, which has yet to be given a name, started in Moscow in 2009 and could be wrapped up as early as 2017, the head of the secretive military industrial corporation helping develop it has revealed. In comments to Russian news agency ITAR-TASS that went largely unnoticed, the head of Rosobshemash said the new missile would be capable of overcoming any nuclear missile shield that the Americans or indeed anyone else...

Russia's state arms procurement program through 2020 provides for the development of a new heavy ballistic missile, a leading missile designer said on Monday. The final decision should be made in 2012-13 by the expert community, not solely the Defense Ministry, said Yury Solomonov of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT), the developer of the troubled Bulava submarine-launched ballistic missile. "This matter is beyond the Defense Ministry's competence. It is a matter of state importance," he said. "Heavy ICBM" refers to a class of missiles with a heavy throw weight between five and nine metric tons and a length...

A converted Russian intercontinental ballistic missile took Germany's TanDEM-X satellite into orbit on Monday, a military spokesman said. The RS-20B carrier rocket lifted off from the Baikonur space center in Kazakhstan at 6:14 Moscow time [2:14 GMT]. This is the 16th launch of an international satellite under the Dnepr program involving Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, which converts RS-20 ICBMs (classified by NATO as the SS-18 Satan) into carrier rockets to put satellites into low Earth orbit. Around 50 satellites have been put into orbit so far. "The RS-20B rocket took the TanDEM-X satellite into orbit," Col. Vadim Koval said....

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) has begun its annual training programme with more than 2,000 servicemen taking part in large-scale command-and-staff exercises. "The SMF are conducting command-and-staff drills on March 10-12 in line with the annual training program," military spokesman Col. Vadim Koval said. The SMF will practice operations control in scenarios involving conventional and nuclear warfare under guidelines outlined by Russia's new military doctrine, said a report by Ria Novosti. "A total of more than 2,000 servicemen and 150 theater- and tactical-level command-and-control centers take part in the drills," Koval said. Russia is hopeful of completing the modernization of...

Russia today tested its SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile, which it test fired from the Dombarovsky missile base in the Odenberg region of Russia, traveling some 6,000km to the Kura testing ground on the far eastern Kamchatka peninsula. This was the first test of a missile being launched from within Russia proper since 1991, reports Interfax—most test launches of the SS-18 take place from Kazakhstan. The missile in question was described as the RS-20V (R-36M2) Voyevoda, which has been in service for some 16 years, and which will remain in service for another ten or 15 years. It is known as...