On June 3, Russia fired a new interceptor missile at the Sary-Shagan test range as part of a series of trials, the last of which occurred in December 2018. In a press statement, the Russian Ministry of Defense stated that the launch was successful but declined to name the weapons system being tested. Prior official statements suggest that the weapon is a modernized variant of the 53T6 interceptor, a component of Russia’s A135 missile defense system.

