The RT-2PM2 missile system will cease to enter service with the Russian army, it will be replaced by Yars
The Russian Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) will re-equip from Topol-M single-block mobile ground-based missile systems to new Yars missiles with multiple warheads, Commander-in-Chief Sergei Karakaev said. The rearmament announcements followed immediately after the resignations in the leadership of the Strategic Missile Forces, but experts believe that this is a coincidence.
The Russian Strategic Missile Forces (Strategic Missile Forces) will be rearmed from the Topol-M single-block mobile ground-based missile systems to the new Yars missiles with multiple warheads.
"Over the past period of experimental combat duty, the Yars PGRK has established itself as a reliable weapon, in connection with which a decision was made to re-equip the mobile group of the Strategic Missile Forces for this type of missile systems," said the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakaev, whose words cited "Interfax".
"At the same time, the mobile-based Topol-M missile system will not enter service with the Strategic Missile Forces in the future," he said. The general said that the RS-24 ("Yars") will strengthen the combat capabilities of the Strategic Missile Forces strike group to overcome anti-missile defense systems, thereby strengthening the nuclear deterrent potential of the Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces. "Together with the already adopted RS-12M2 Topol-M single-missile missile, mine and mobile, these missiles will form the basis of the Strategic Missile Forces strike group for the foreseeable future, until 2020," said the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces.
According to Karakaev, reported by RIA Novosti, one of the most effective means of solving the problem of increasing the survivability of a military group is the use of mobile ground-based missile systems (PGRK).
“The newest Russian PGRK is the complex with the RS-24 Yars ICBM, which has the ability to quickly exit the point of permanent deployment and hidden dispersal over large areas. This PGRK gives stability to the group in retaliation,”said Karakaev.
Note that the first regiment with "Yars" was put on experimental combat duty at the beginning of 2010 in the Teikovo missile formation. The development of "Yars" is carried out by the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. The missile will be capable of carrying 3-4 individually guided nuclear warheads with a capacity of 150-300 kilotons each. The technical data of the rocket is classified. It is assumed that it will be able to hit targets at a distance of up to 11 thousand kilometers. At the beginning of January 2010, it was reported that by the end of this year it is planned to complete the state tests of Yars.
Armament will continue
Sergei Karakaev also said that other new missile systems (RK) are being developed in Russia, which will help maintain the balance of forces in solving the problem of nuclear deterrence. "In the domestic rocket industry, the development of new missile systems will continue, including those incorporating new technical solutions of the Republic of Kazakhstan of the Topol-M type, which will subsequently enter service with the Strategic Missile Forces," the commander clarified.
Meanwhile, the adoption of silo-based Topol-M missile systems will continue. It is expected that by the end of 2010 the sixth missile regiment, armed with a stationary Topol, will take up combat duty in the Tatishchevsk formation. “The work on re-equipping the missile regiments with the stationary Topol-M missile system will continue in 2011,” said the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces on Tuesday.
In December, the Russian Strategic Missile Forces will conduct the fifth launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this year. In 2011, 10 launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles are planned. ICBM launches are carried out from test sites, a cosmodrome and from the positional area of the Dombarovsky missile formation in the Orenburg region. The Strategic Missile Forces explains that test launches are carried out as part of development work to create promising rocketry models.
Strategic optimization
The commander also spoke about how the numerical strength of the type of troops entrusted to him is changing: “From 2006 to 2009, in accordance with the construction plan of the RF Armed Forces, one missile division stationed in the city of Kansk, Krasnoyarsk Territory, and 19 missile regiments were disbanded; the Stavropol Military Institute of Communications and five Central Repair Plants were removed from the Strategic Missile Forces; the Sary-Shagan test site and the Kapustin Yar state central interspecific test site in the Astrakhan region were merged into one structure; included in the Strategic Missile Forces, the Tver Suvorov Military School,”said Karakaev.
At the same time, he stressed that over the past five years there have been no fundamental changes in the structure of the Strategic Missile Forces - "the tested three-tier system of military command and control bodies: the command of the Strategic Missile Forces - missile formation - missile formation" remained unchanged.
In total, from January 1, 2006 to January 1, 2010, more than 10 thousand positions of military personnel and over 8 thousand positions of civilian personnel were reduced. This year the financial and economic administration and the military scientific committee of the Strategic Missile Forces have been disbanded; A separate research station in the city of Klyuchi and a training center in the city of Mirny were transferred to the Space Forces, and the 4th Central Research Institute was transferred to the Military Scientific Committee of the General Staff.
The optimization of the composition and number of military units and organizations located in Moscow and the Moscow region was carried out, branches of the Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great were created in Serpukhov and Rostov-on-Don by including the corresponding military institutes in the structure of the academy. Also, the composition and number of higher military educational institutions was reduced in connection with a decrease in the number of students and cadets.
The commander said that in 2011 the main efforts to improve the organizational and staff structure of the Strategic Missile Forces will be aimed at further optimizing the structure of military command and control bodies at all levels in order to eliminate duplicate functions; disbandment of individual small military units, consolidation of military units and bodies with a redistribution of tasks and functions, excluding their duplication; reorganization of separate military units located at one point of deployment into larger ones; replacement of military positions that do not determine the combat effectiveness of military units to civilian personnel positions.
Not connected with resignations
Note that the statements of the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces occurred immediately after the high-profile resignations that occurred the day before. On November 29, President Dmitry Medvedev dismissed and dismissed from military service the deputy commander of the Strategic Missile Forces for armaments, Major General Vladimir Antsiferov, and the deputy commander of the Strategic Missile Forces for logistics, Major General Alexei Chirkunov. As reported by the Kremlin press service, the president made a similar decision regarding the deputy commander of the 31st missile army, Major General Alexander Bolgarsky, and the chief of armaments - deputy commander of the 31st missile army for armaments, Major General Gennady Kutorkin.
Expert of the Center for Analysis, Strategy and Technologies Andrei Frolov, however, does not see any connection between the resignations and the statements of the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces: the operation of the Topol is mostly finished in 2015-16, so their replacement with more modern Yars is quite an expected event."
