Russia will carry out in the next few months a test launch of a modernized Yars Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), the chief designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technologies said.

“In the next few months, we will carry out a test launch of a modernized version of the Yars missile, which is expected to increase the effectiveness of the existing system,” Yuri Solomonov said.

The current version of the RS-24 Yars (NATO designation SS-27 Mod 2) can reportedly carry up to 10 MIRV warheads and has a range of 11,000 kilometers (some 6,800 miles).

In October 2015, Russia successfully launched a Yars intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with independently targeted warheads from its Plesetsk Cosmodrome to a range on the Kamchatka Peninsula, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Earlier this year (January 2016), Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) started rearmament of two more missile divisions with advanced RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems, SMF Commander Col. Gen. Sergey Karakayev said.

The Yars is a multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) that contains several warheads. Great Britain, France, Russia, the United States, and China are the only countries believed to have these types of ICBMs in their arsenal.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Yars entered service with the SMF in 2010.