The spokesman of the Eastern Military District, Alexander Gordeyev, told reporters that a unit of that command test-fired the missile against a target that simulated an enemy command center, in the southern Astrakhan region.
Gordeyev noted that after the success in the trial, the mobilized Army unit returned with the missile system to its permanent base of deployment, in the republic of Buryatia, in Siberia.
The tactical ballistic systems of the Iskander type are capable of hitting targets both small and large targets, at a distance of up to 500 kilometers, destroy multiple-launch rocket systems, long-range artillery, airfields, command posts and communication centers, reports say.
These complexes include a transport-erector-launcher (TEL) vehicle, another of routine maintenance, a command vehicle, an intel post, and a vehicle for rearming and training.
The basic variant of this tactical-operational weapon is one of Russia's responses to the missile defense deployed by the US in Europe.
Russian specialized media report that test launches have been carried out with vectors of the R-500 type from Iskander platforms.
Equipped with cruise missiles and nuclear warheads, the system's reach can potentially exceed two thousand kilometers, and this would allow them to defeat targets virtually throughout Europe, added the sources.
Its possibilities could be multiplied, should they be emplaced in the enclave of Kaliningrad, the westernmost tip of the Russian Federation.
The president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems, Konstantin Sivkov, said recently that the Kremlin can respond to the US plan to deploy 20 new nuclear bombs in Germany with what he called 'an antiaircraft fence'.
The only way we can answer is by retrofitting the high-precision Iskander missiles with nuclear warheads, and produce large numbers of missiles for the long-range aviation, he said, when questioned by the news agency Novosti.
For his part, the German Ambassador to Russia, Rudiger von Fritasch, said on Monday at a press conference that it is not a deployment of new US missiles, but a replacement of outdated components.
He said that the main objective is to maintain the security of the weapons with the replacement of components, whose useful life has expired.
The German channel ZDF said last week that the United States is preparing to deploy 20 B61-12 bombs, recently modernized, to multiply the potential, in the Büchel Air Base, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany.
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