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Strategic nuclear force to become Defense Ministry’s priority 2015 — General Staff

This year three regiments of the Strategic Missile Force have been rearmed with the new Yars system, and four strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS have undergone upgrade and entered duty
Strategic bomber Tu-160  ITAR-TASS/Marina Lystseva
Strategic bomber Tu-160
© ITAR-TASS/Marina Lystseva

MOSCOW, December 29. /TASS/. The development of the strategic nuclear force will be the Russian Defense Ministry’s top priority, the chief of the General Staff, Valery Gerasimov, said on the Rossiya-24 television news channel.

“The condition and development of the strategic nuclear force is of top priority, of course. This year three regiments of the Strategic Missile Force have been rearmed with the new Yars system. Four strategic bombers Tu-160 and Tu-95MS have undergone upgrade and entered duty,” he said.

A number of tasks to upgrade the Strategic Missile Force structure have been addressed. In 2014 two high factory readiness radars were commissioned in Kalinigrad and Irkutsk, and two more entered experimental duty in Barnaul and Yeniseisk,” Gerasimov said. “Next year both will join active service. All strategic routes of approach - south-western and eastern - have been put under control. In the Air and Space Defense force all brigades have been reformed to air defense divisions,” he added.

Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu earlier reported that Russia's Strategic Nuclear Forces added 38 new intercontinental ballistic missiles to their tables of equipment this year, including 22 submarine-based missiles.