MOSCOW, November 29. /TASS/. Over 150 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launchers are operational in Russia’s Strategic Missile Force today, Force Commander Colonel-General Sergei Karakayev said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper on Friday.

"The enterprises of the [defense] industry are keeping up the pace of delivering parts of the Yars missile system in its stationary silo-based and road-mobile versions to the troops. By now, the troops have received more than 150 launchers of the new system and started to operate them," the commander reported.

Speaking about mobile missile systems, the general noted that Russia’s Strategic Missile Force operated about 200 such launchers that included Topol and Yars ICBMs.

During the rearmament, the total number of launching systems does not increase because Yars ICBMs are replacing Topol missile systems that have used up their warranty life, the commander stated.

Russia is currently withdrawing the last Soviet-made missile systems from the combat structure of its Strategic Missile Force, the commander informed.

Yars ICBMs

The RS-24 Yars is a Russian strategic missile system comprising a mobile or silo-based solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile with MIRVed (multiple independently targetable vehicle) warheads. The ICBM was developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology under the supervision of academician at the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Solomonov. The Yars is a modification of the Topol-M missile system.

Russia is currently rearming the 35th missile division with the mobile Yars-S missile system, which is an upgraded version of the Yars ICBM, Division Commander Colonel Alexander Prokopenkov said on the Single Military Output Acceptance Day in mid-October.

In September this year, the 479th missile regiment armed with Yars-S missile systems went on experimental combat duty.

Before 2021, three more regiments of Russia’s Strategic Missile Force will be rearmed with Yars-S ICBMs, Prokopenkov stated.