In February 1983, the famous Topol PGRK passed its first tests. The first test flight of the rocket was carried out at the Plesetsk cosmodrome on February 8, 1983. The first launches were made from modified stationary type silos, in which the RT-2P missiles were previously based. All launches were successful except for one. The tests continued until December 23, 1987, during which time a total of 70 Topol launches were made. In 1984, construction and equipment of sites for the installation of combat systems began, patrol routes for Topol mobile missile systems were modeled, service areas, obsolete types of missiles, in turn, were removed from positions. After the successful completion of the first series of tests by mid-1985 (15 test launches took place in April 1985), the RT-2PM rocket was put into service, and on July 23, 1985 in the city of Yoshkar-Ola, the first regiment of the PGRK took up combat duty. At the same time, tests related to the combat control system continued. Missile tests ended only on December 23, 1987, and the test activities of the entire missile complex ended completely only in December 1988. That is why the final decision to commission the Topol complex was made only in December 1988, that is, three and a half years after the start of actual operation. At the time of the signing of the START-1 Treaty in 1991, the USSR had 288 Topol missile systems at its disposal. After the signing of START-1, work on improving these systems continued. At the end of 1996, the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation had 360 combat units of the Topol PGRK. Since then, at least one test launch of the Topol rocket has been carried out every year from the Plesetsk test site. During testing and operation, several dozen test missile launches were carried out. All of them were successful.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, 81 combat units of the Topol PGRK remained on the territory of the Republic of Belarus. On August 13, 1993, the withdrawal of the Topol PGRK grouping from Belarus began, and on November 27, 1996, it was completed. As of July 2006, 243 Topol mobile missile systems are in combat service. They are located in the areas of the settlements of Teikovo, Yoshkar-Ola, Yurya, Nizhny Tagil, Novosibirsk, Kansk, Irkutsk, Barnaul, Vypolzovo. An interesting fact is that the Topol complex is the first Soviet strategic ballistic missile, whose name was declassified in the Soviet press, in an article refuting American accusations that Russia is testing a new missile system in violation of the Arms Limitation Treaty.
On November 29, 2005, a training launch of the RS-12M Topol ballistic missile was made from the Plesetsk cosmodrome at a target at the Kamchatka Kura training ground. By that time, the rocket had been in operation for 20 years. This was the first time in practice, not only in domestic, but also in world rocketry, when such a complex launch of a rocket, which had been in operation for such a long time, was successfully implemented.
Combat firing of "Topol" continues and takes place more and more often. Over the past year, there have been three successful missile tests. This refers to the launch of the Topol from Plesetsk on September 3, 2011, the November firing and missile tests that took place at the Kapustin Yar test site quite recently, on June 7, 2012. The tasks of the test launch were completed in full. During the June tests, the missilemen received information about the various parameters of the Topol operation, which can be used in the development of new effective means of overcoming the missile defense of a potential enemy.
