Fired from the Delta-IV class Yekaterinburg submarine that was diving in the Barents Sea, the third-generation, liquid-propellant RSM-54 Sineva missile (NATO codename Skiff) hit its target on time, the spokesman told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

The missile, produced by the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant, can be fired from under water at targets more than 6,000 miles away. It's able to carry up to 10 warheads and is a key segment of Russia's nuclear deterrent.

The Russian navy's last missile test was in October 2010, when a pair of submarines fired a Sineva and a Stingray ballistic missile, with both hitting their respective designated targets, Russian officials said at the time.

The latest test comes as Washington and Moscow are negotiating to reduce their nuclear weapons arsenal.

Washington is making every effort to reach an agreement, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Rose Gottemoeller said last week.

"Consistent with the president's agenda to reduce the role and number of nuclear weapons and the Senate's call for pursuing negotiations with Russia on tactical nuclear weapons, we are working intensively throughout our government on these issues while also consulting with our NATO allies," Gottemoeller was quoted as saying during her speech at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

"We will be working with NATO to shape an approach to reduce the role and number of forward-based U.S. non-strategic nuclear weapons in Europe, as Russia takes reciprocal steps to reduce its non-strategic nuclear weapons and relocate them away from NATO's borders," she added.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said in March that Russia would double its ballistic missile production starting in 2013 and spend, over the next decade, around $2.6 billion on new strategic and tactical missiles such as Yars, Bulava and Iskander-M.

In what was seen as a major step forward for anti-proliferation efforts, the presidents of the United States and Russia, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, last spring signed a new arms reduction treaty.

Ratified by U.S. and Russian lawmakers in December and January, it cuts the number of strategic warheads in each country to 1,550, down from 2,200; and the number of land-, air- and sea-based launchers to 800, down from 1,600.

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