Russia demonstrates mobile nuclear missile launch from Plesetsk in full triad exercise

Russia fired an RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on August 28, sending it arcing across the country to the Kura test range on the Kamchatka Peninsula. President Vladimir Putin watched the whole thing via video link from the Kremlin.

The launch wasn’t a standalone event. It was part of a coordinated exercise involving all three legs of Russia’s nuclear triad: the road-mobile Yars ICBM, a Sineva submarine-launched ballistic missile fired from beneath the waves, and cruise missiles released from Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers. Russia’s Ministry of Defense declared all objectives met and all targets hit.

What the Yars actually is

The RS-24 Yars is a solid-propellant ICBM that rides around on a mobile launcher, making it significantly harder to track and target than its silo-based cousins. Its defining feature is the ability to carry multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles, or MIRVs. Each warhead can be aimed at a separate target, which also complicates missile defense systems trying to intercept them.

The system has been in testing at Plesetsk since May 2007 and achieved initial operational capability in the late 2000s. It now forms a core component of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces, gradually replacing older Topol-M systems across the country’s mobile ICBM fleet.

Plesetsk, located in Russia’s Arkhangelsk Oblast roughly 800 kilometers north of Moscow, has long served as the primary launch site for these tests. The Kura range on Kamchatka, thousands of kilometers to the east, acts as the impact zone.

A pattern of escalating exercises

The August 28 launch followed an earlier Yars test on May 21, conducted as part of joint nuclear drills with Belarus. That exercise involved over 64,000 personnel drawn from various branches of Russia’s military services. The May drill represented the second phase of a broader exercise series designed to stress-test Russia’s nuclear command-and-control systems under simulated threat conditions.

Since Russia began stationing tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus in 2023, the two countries have conducted periodic joint exercises meant to demonstrate their shared nuclear posture. The May drill was the most recent iteration of that cooperation.

Both the May and August launches targeted Kura, and both were declared successful by the Ministry of Defense. The military emphasized that the exercises validated command-and-control readiness across the entire nuclear chain of command, from the Kremlin down to the individual launch crews and submarine commanders.

Context and implications

The triad exercise format demonstrates that all three delivery systems remain operational and can be activated simultaneously. For NATO planners, the Yars system’s road-mobility means mobile launchers can disperse into Russia’s vast interior during a crisis, unlike silo-based missiles which sit at known coordinates.

The MIRV capability adds another layer of complexity. Missile defense systems like the US Ground-based Midcourse Defense network are designed to intercept individual warheads. When a single missile releases multiple warheads on diverging trajectories, each interceptor can engage only one target, so a single MIRVed missile can quickly overwhelm a limited defense architecture.

Russia has historically conducted annual strategic deterrence drills, typically in the autumn. Running two major nuclear exercises within roughly three months of each other in 2026 signals an intent to keep readiness levels elevated. The autumn window for Russia’s traditional Grom strategic deterrence drills is approaching, which could represent a third major nuclear exercise of 2026.

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