MOSCOW, June 2. /ITAR-TASS/. Russia’s Strategic Missile Force will make 12 test launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) by the end of 2014, Strategic Missile Force spokesman, Colonel Igor Yegorov, said on Monday.

“Until the end of the year, 12 launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles of various types are planned,” he said, adding the exercise would include launches as part of R&D work for the development of promising missile systems, launches to test combat equipment and missile launches under a program of liquidation with the concurrent injection of spacecraft into orbit.

During the summer training period that will last until November 30, the Russian Strategic Missile Force will take part in over 40 staff and 20 command and staff training drills, and also 10 command and staff and 50 tactical exercises, the spokesman said.

The training plans include snap checks of the Strategic Missile Force’s combat preparedness and combat duty.

Training will also be continued for the personnel of the Strategic Missile Force to operate new missile systems, the spokesman said.

“Under the plan of developing the Russian Strategic Missile Force, a key event of this year will be to put Yars missile systems on combat duty in the Kozelsk, Nizhny Tagil and Novosibirsk missile regiments,” the Strategic Missile Force spokesman said.

The RS-24 Yars missile is a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile with a multiple warhead. It can be both silo-and mobile-based. Designed by the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute, the missile is a modernized version of the Topol-M ICBM and should replace RS-18 and RS-20 missiles in the future.

On December 24, 2013, a silo-based RS-24 Yars missile was fired from Plesetsk Cosmodrome and hit the target at the Kura testing range in Kamchatka.