Russia Test Fires Long-Range Topol Missile
Russia fired a long-range Topol missile from a launch site in northern Russia on Sunday, October 12, 2008. A Reuters witness said the truck mounted Topol was fired in drizzling rain from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, which is nestled among the forests of Russia's north. Before the launch, President Dmitry Medvedev personally inspected the RS-12M Topol, called the SS-25 Sickle by NATO, which has a maximum range of 10,000 km and can carry one 550-kiloton warhead.