MOSCOW, October 25. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin watched an exercise of the country’s strategic deterrence forces via video conferencing on Wednesday.
The Russian president joined the exercise from the Kremlin’s situational center and listened to the reports by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu and Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov.
The exercise was carried out with the forces and capabilities of the ground-based, naval and airborne components of the Russian nuclear deterrence forces, the Kremlin press office said on its website.
The strategic deterrence forces are a component of the Russian Armed Forces designated to deter aggression against Russia and its allies and inflict a defeat on the aggressor in a war employing various types of armaments, including nuclear weapons. The strategic deterrence forces consist of the strategic offensive and defensive forces.
The strategic nuclear forces (the nuclear triad) are a key component of the strategic offensive forces and are composed of the Strategic Missile Force, the naval component (the naval strategic nuclear forces) and the airborne component represented by the Aerospace Forces (the airborne strategic nuclear forces).
Russia began developing its nuclear triad in the 1950s. Its basic armament presently comprises stationary and mobile ground-based intercontinental ballistic missile systems, strategic nuclear-powered submarines and also strategic bombers carrying strategic air-to-surface cruise missiles and air bombs.
During the strategic deterrence exercise, Russia test-launched a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the Kremlin press office reported on its website.
"A Yars intercontinental ballistic missile was test-launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome towards the Kura proving ground in Kamchatka," the press office said in a statement.