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Russian Strategic Missile Forces start military drills — Defense Ministry

The Strategic Missile Forces' large-scale maneuvers cover the area from the Tver Region in central Russia to the Irkutsk Region in Siberia

MOSCOW, September 4. /TASS/. Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces is beginning the most important stage of the large-scale military exercise covering about 20 Russian regions on Friday.

"Topol, Topol-M and Yars mobile ballistic missile systems are regrouping, changing their field positions and dispersing in nearby forests", the Russian Defense Ministry’s press office for the Strategic Missile Forces said.

The Strategic Missile Forces' large-scale maneuvers cover the area from the Tver Region in central Russia to the Irkutsk Region in Siberia.

The participants in the exercise "are improving their skills in camouflaging mobile ballistic missile systems and clearing them of a simulated enemy’s reach" at a qualitatively new level, the press office said in its statement.

The Strategic Missile Force "is accomplishing assignments and interjected mission changes, crossing notionally contaminated areas, repelling a simulated enemy’s air and ground attacks and cooperating with the attached units," the press office said.

A special operational exercise aimed at estimating the effects of mass destruction weapons was completed on Friday against the backdrop of the large-scale Russian Strategic Missile Force’s maneuvers.

The NBC protection units practiced more than 30 interjected mission changes with various scenarios of terror attacks at radiation, biological and chemical hazardous facilities.

More than 1,200 chemical troops and about 200 pieces of special NBC protection hardware were engaged in accomplishing combat assignments in the most realistic manner at the missile deployment areas.

The Topol, Topol-M and Yars mobile ballistic missile launchers were fully decontaminated during the drills.

In all, the Russian Strategic Missile Force will conduct more than 100 exercises in 2015, the Defense Ministry said.