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Russia carries out 10 successful launches of Yars ICBMs since 2012

Besides, five successful launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles fitted with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle were held in the reported period

MOSCOW, December 23. /TASS/. Russian armed forces performed 10 successful launches of the Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) between 2012 and 2020, the Russian Defense Ministry said in its bulletin, headlined ‘Main results of the Russian Armed Forces’ activities in 2012-2020,’ obtained by TASS.

"In the period between 2012 and 2020, ten successful launches of the Yars strategic-purpose missile system were held," the document says.

Besides, five successful launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles fitted with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle were held in the reported period. The missiles reached the speed of Mach 28 (7.5 kilometers per second).

According to the Defense Ministry’s document, the number of Yars and Avangard systems increased by 14 times and four times, respectively, in 2012-2020.

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 of the Russian Academy of Sciences Yuri Solomonov. The Yars is a modification of the Topol-M missile system.

The first missile regiment armed with Avangard hypersonic weapons assumed combat duty in the Yasny missile division in the Orenburg Region in late 2019. The Avangard boost-glide vehicle is capable of flying at a hypersonic speed of up to Mach 27 (about 32,000 km/h) in the dense layers of the atmosphere, maneuvering by its flight path and its altitude and breaching any anti-missile defense. The Avangard hypersonic weapon was first mentioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2018.

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