MOSCOW, August 9. /TASS/. Russia will unveil equipment of the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system, including its mobile missile launcher, at the Army 2023 international arms show, Strategic Missile Force Commander Colonel-General Sergey Karakayev said on Wednesday.

"Considering numerous requests and wishes from the forum’s constant visitors and missile troop veterans, an autonomous launcher and a combat alert vehicle of the Yars mobile missile system will be demonstrated for the first time along with a traditional firing battery of the Topol road-mobile missile system," the commander said in an interview with the Defense Ministry’s Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper.

For the first time ever, a broad range of the Russian Strategic Missile Force’s armament, military and special hardware will be on display on an open site of the Patriot Congress and Exhibition Center near Moscow at the Army 2023 international military-technical forum, he said.

"This exposition will symbolize the rearmament of the Strategic Missile Force’s mobile grouping. This year, the missile troops will complete their rearmament, with another missile regiment of Yars road-mobile missile systems going on combat alert at the Bologoye missile formation," he stressed.

The Army 2023 international arms show will also feature the Listva remote-controlled mine-clearing vehicle, the commander said.

"The public at large will also be able to view for the first time an Avangard ICBM booster placed on a special transporter-loader," he said.

Russian Strategic Missile Force’s rearmament

As the commander said earlier, four Strategic Missile Force divisions are being rearmed for new military hardware.

"The rearmament of the Bologoye missile formation (the Tver Region) will be completed by the yearned. Efforts continue to rearm the Kozelsk, Yasny and Uzhur missile formations," the Defense Ministry quoted the commander as saying.

The Bologoye missile formation is switching over to Yars mobile missile systems, the Kozelsk unit to Yars silo-based launchers and the Yasny formation to Avangard silo-based hypersonic missile systems. The Uzhur missile formation is preparing for its rearmament for the latest Sarmat silo-based heavy ICBMs.

ICBM systems

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 Yury Solomonov. The Yars is a modification of the Topol-M missile system.

The Avangard boost-glide vehicle engineered and produced by the Reutovo-based Research and Production Association of Machine-Building 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.

The Sarmat ICBM was developed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center and is manufactured at the Krasmash enterprise (both are part of the State Space Corporation Roscosmos). Russia successfully test-launched its Sarmat ICBM for the first time from the Plesetsk spaceport in the Arkhangelsk Region in the country’s north on April 20, 2022. The launch confirmed all of the ICBM’s designed characteristics at all the stages of its flight. The RS-28 Sarmat is capable of delivering a MIRVed warhead weighing up to 10 tons to any location worldwide both over the North and South Poles.

Army 2023 military-technical forum

The Army 2023 international military-technical forum will run at the Patriot Congress and Exhibition Center, the Alabino training ground and the Kubinka airfield outside Moscow on August 14-20. Over 60 states have confirmed the participation of their official military delegations in the forum.

The forum’s scientific and business program will include over 300 events to focus on the development of Russia’s armed forces and its defense industry and international military-technical cooperation, taking into account present-day realities. The forum will be open to specialists, foreign delegations and events under the scientific and business program on August 15-17. It will be open to the public on August 18-20. TASS is the forum’s strategic media partner.