The Tagil unit of the Russian strategic missile forces has been completely rearmed with Yars (NATO reporting name: SS-29 Yars) ground-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) systems, commander of the Russian strategic missile forces Sergei Karakayev said on Thursday.
“We have completed rearming of the Tagil and Novosibirsk missile units with the Yars ground-mobile ballistic missile systems,” he said, adding that ongoing missile troops drills in the Sverdlovsk region will make it possible to assess the possibilities of new arms and hardware.
According to Karakayev, rearming of the Irkutsk and Yoshkar-Ola missile units continues. Rearming of Bologoye and Barnaul units will begin in 2020.
In November 2017, Karakayev said that all missile divisions operating mobile missile systems would be rearmed with the Yars missile system by 2026.
The Yars is a mobile or stationary missile system with a solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) containing a multiple warhead. It was developed on the basis of the Topol-M missile system in the 2000s by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology under the guidance of Chief Designer Yuri Solomonov.
The first test launch was performed from the Plesetsk testing range towards the Kura ground on May 29, 2007.
Russia started to deploy Yars missile systems in December 2009 when the system was accepted by the Strategic Missile Force for operational evaluation.
