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.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.