GORKI, December 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia has begun the deployment of a new silo-based missile system, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday at a meeting with the government members.

“You know, we have recently launched another submarine — a nuclear-powered cruiser — and now have started the deployment of a new-generation silo-based missile system,” the president said.

According to him, “it’s a major event in the life of the country that boosts its defensive capacity.” In the view of Russia’s head of state, “it’s the result of joint work, and this would not happen without the proper work of the financial scheme, the economy, without the corresponding condition of the social sphere and, of course, the defense complex.” “All this is impossible without the concerted teamwork of all the echelons of the government staff, administration, all security structures,” he added.

Commander of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) Colonel General Sergei Karakayev on December 17 reported the ongoing rearmament of the RVSN with the Yars mobile and silo-based new missile system, including the rearmament of the Novosibirsk and Tagil divisions with the mobile Yars missile system, as well as the rearmament of the Kozelsk Missile Division with the silo-based Yars system. “Successful completion of the state tests will make it possible to put on combat duty 15 Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM) in these divisions by the end of 2013,” Karakayev said then.

He also said that flight development tests of the new solid-propelled ICBM, codenamed RS-26, created on the basis of RS-24 Yars, would be completed in 2014. It is planned to put on combat duty the land-based mobile missile system with this missile in 2015.

Karakayev recalled that in 2012 the new missile had been launched from the first state test range to the Kura range at a distance of more than 5.6 thousand kilometers. “The missile fulfilled its task, the dummy warhead landed on Kamchatka Peninsula, and further work is currently underway to finish up (the missile) and conduct the tests that would confirm all its (specified) performance characteristics,” the RVSN commander said.

“After this work is carried out — its completion is scheduled in 2014, the State Commission will give an opinion on the system’s acceptance. If the work is successful, in 2015 we plan to put this system on combat duty,” Karakayev said. He added that the divisions where this system would be deployed had been already determined.

Karakayev noted that RS-26 is a solid-propelled ICBM with a multiple warhead. “The RS-26 missile is a working title, the same as Avangard and Rubezh. This is an intercontinental ballistic missile prototype based on Yars and Topol-M, which is undergoing flight tests,” said the commander.

According to him, the new missile would have lower mass than Yars. “We always say that we need to reduce the size (of missile systems). Speaking of the Yars land-based mobile missile system, to date, its launcher weighs more than 120 tonnes. We will make the improved missile’s weight characteristics under 80 tonnes,” said the commander.

“By improving the rocket fuel component, a solid fuel component, we are creating a new missile system, which we can deploy also on different soils and in different positioning areas. You understand that it has a better off-road capability and it is smaller in size, so its combat survivability will be higher, and it will require less camouflaging facilities,” Karakayev said. “We will not put it in silos, as it’s a land-based mobile missile system,” he added.