Russia test launched its new RS-24 ICBM on May 29 from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome and sent it across the country to the Kamchatka Peninsula—about 3,400 miles away. The Moscow Times reports that the maiden launch with the missile’s multiple independent warheads landing on target at the Kura testing range. According to the Russian News and Information Agency, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov says the new missile would “beat any operational and future missile defenses.” Defense Secretary Robert Gates on his April visit to Moscow discussed Russian concerns about the US plan to station missile defense sites in Eastern European.
After years of describing to lawmakers and Pentagon leaders the nature of that threat and the key role spacepower plays in deterring conflict in the domain and enabling the rest of the joint force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during AFA’s Warfare Symposium here that the message appears to…