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Next Yars ICBM placed into silo in strategic missile formation in central Russia

The Kozelsk missile formation was the first unit in the Russian Strategic Missile Force to be rearmed with silo-based Yars ICBMs

MOSCOW, December 15. /TASS/. The next RS-24 Yars top-notch intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was placed into a silo at the Kozelsk missile formation in the Kaluga Region in central Russia, the Russian Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

On December 14, the Russian top brass also reported loading a Yars ICBM into a silo at the Strategic Missile Force’s formation in the Kaluga Region.

"Work has been completed at the Kozelsk formation to load the next missile into a silo-based launcher. This work is a highly responsible effort requiring that the personnel display high professional skills and accuracy in fulfilling the assigned tasks," Kozelsk Missile Formation Deputy Commander for Armament Colonel Alexander Khizhnyak said.

The Yars ICBM was placed into the silo with the help of a special transporter-loader. Complex technological operations lasted several hours.

The Kozelsk missile formation was the first unit in the Russian Strategic Missile Force to be rearmed with silo-based Yars ICBMs, the ministry said.

The rearmament of the Russian Strategic Missile Force consists both in outfitting the troops with cutting-edge missile systems and creating new social infrastructure providing for more qualitative conditions of training of on-duty teams, their combat alerts and leisure, the ministry said.

The 2022 planned measures for rearming the Russian Strategic Missile Force will help raise the share of top-notch strategic missile systems and boost its capabilities for accomplishing assigned missions, it said.

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 Yars is a modification of the Topol-M missile system. Russia started deploying Yars ICBM systems in 2009 when the Yars launcher was accepted for experimental combat duty in the Strategic Missile Force.