RS-24 'Yars' (SS-29)

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) will be rearmed with multiple-warhead RS-24 missiles instead of the RS-12M Topol-M (SS-27 Sickle) mobile intercontinental ballistic missile systems, SMF Commander Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said on Tuesday.

"The mobile missile system with the RS-24 ballistic missile is an improved version of the Topol-M, and during production experience with fifth generation mobile missile systems was taken into account," Karakayev said, adding that the missile proved itself a reliable weapon.

"Therefore it was decided to rearm the SMF with this type of missile system," he continued. "At the same the Topol-M mobile missile system will not be supplied to the Strategic Missile Forces in the future."

RS-24 is believed to have up to six independent warheads, and is thus more likely to be able to penetrate anti-missile defense systems than the single warhead Topol-M.

The SMF said in August that the Topol-M and RS-24 missiles would be the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia's nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80% of the SMF's arsenal by 2016.

As of June 2010, the SMF operated at least 50 silo-based and 18 road-mobile Topol-M missile systems. The RS-24 was commissioned in 2010 after successful testing.

The RS-12M Topol is a single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile, approximately the same size and shape as the U.S. Minuteman ICBM. The first Topol missiles entered service in 1985.

The missile has a maximum range of 10,000 km (6,125 miles) and can carry a nuclear warhead with a yield of 550 kilotons.

Next year the SMF will hold 10 intercontinental ballistic missile launches, twice as many as in 2010, Karakayev said.



Russia's missile forces to replace Topol-M with multiple-warhead RS-24 | Defense | RIA Novosti

This will ease production number problems because building single warhead missiles would be a pain when you need about 550 of them.

Missles with 6 warheads per missile makes it easier to replace the larger missiles as they retire. The SS-19 has 6 warheads as a standard load so as you retire them you can replace missile for missile instead of having to make 6 TOPOL-Ms per missile retired.
The SS-18 case is even more pronounced because it carries 10 warheads as standard and can be replaced with 2 RS-24s instead of 10 TOPOL-Ms. Of course as missiles retire the in service numbers of warheads needs to reduce as well so when 20 SS-19s get retired they might only make 10 RS-24s to replace them, and when 20 SS-18s retire they might just make 5 RS-24s so the total number of warheads is reduced overall to about 550 or so. Instead of having to make 90 TOPOL-Ms they make 15 RS-24s which is much cheaper and quicker.
Problem is that it would be easier to shoot down 15 RS-24s than 90 TOPOL-Ms.

GarryB wrote:This will ease production number problems because building single warhead missiles would be a pain when you need about 550 of them.

Missles with 6 warheads per missile makes it easier to replace the larger missiles as they retire. The SS-19 has 6 warheads as a standard load so as you retire them you can replace missile for missile instead of having to make 6 TOPOL-Ms per missile retired.
The SS-18 case is even more pronounced because it carries 10 warheads as standard and can be replaced with 2 RS-24s instead of 10 TOPOL-Ms. Of course as missiles retire the in service numbers of warheads needs to reduce as well so when 20 SS-19s get retired they might only make 10 RS-24s to replace them, and when 20 SS-18s retire they might just make 5 RS-24s so the total number of warheads is reduced overall to about 550 or so. Instead of having to make 90 TOPOL-Ms they make 15 RS-24s which is much cheaper and quicker.
Problem is that it would be easier to shoot down 15 RS-24s than 90 TOPOL-Ms.

Doesn't work like that Garry. These single megaton warhead missiles are city killers, to replace them with MIRVs is just using lower yield warheads in a more dispersed pattern. A missile isn't going to carry its max number of MIRVs as half of them will be decoys. Also, the trajectory of MIRVs will only be able to engage targets in vicinity to the original target within a 100km radius. The point of MIRV is to get warheads through ABM defence where a single warhead would fail. Then they disperse for maximum kills over population centers. Russian MIRVs are INS set for city killing dispersal patterns, not PGMs like American MIRVs can be. You might be able to replace two missiles for one with the MIRVs, but not a missile for each MIRV.

Sorry Kron1 you lost me.

These single megaton warhead missiles are city killers, to replace them with MIRVs is just using lower yield warheads in a more dispersed pattern.

What megaton warheads are we talking about?

Do you mean the old single warhead SS-18 25 megaton warhead for Cheyanne mountain (ie the Stargate Base in the TV series).
AFAIK they are not in service any more and the standard in service SS-18s and SS-19s have 150-200KT warheads in loads of 10 and 6 respectively.

Against super hardened targets then accuracy and high yield are very important, but as you mention three relatively low yield warheads can do much more damage to an area target like a city than even a very big warhead can. As an example 3 x 150KT warhead missiles evenly distributed around a large city like London would do rather more damage than a single warhead of considerably more power like a 5MT bomb because the smaller bombs deliver damage more efficiently.

If you think about it it makes perfect sense... a 50 gramme block of HE is easily enough to kill a human yet to kill the 6 billion people on this planet would require 300 million tons of HE or 300MT. With SS-18 missiles having 25 Megaton warheads that means 12 missiles with 12 warheads to wipe out all of humanity... it clearly is not enough. Even though they are big warheads.

Obviously the 12 missiles is more practical and delivery is much easier. The concept is the same as with a cluster bomb... when you just want to kill people then a single 500kg HE charge is not as effective as 450 x 0.75kg HE fragmentation charges that shower over a wide area when released.

A missile isn't going to carry its max number of MIRVs as half of them will be decoys.

TOPOL-M only carries one warhead. The number of warheads a missile carries includes space for decoys and jammers and other bits and pieces. When they talk about the RS-24 carrying 6 warheads they mean that is the normal number of warheads it will carry. That is how many it is assumed to carry regarding arms limitations agreements. If you further remove warheads from that figure you are reducing the number of real warheads you have... which doesn't make sense. If you are only allowed 550 warheads from ICBMs then why would you drop 100 to carry decoys? Clearly you include the decoys with the normal load of the missile. The RS-24 carries 6 warheads plus decoys. The SS-18 carries 10 warheads in the most widely deployed model plus decoys. etc etc. TOPOL-M was limited by the START2 treaty to only be allowed one warhead. That is why they needed the RS-24 design to allow 6 warheads plus decoys and jammers etc.

Also, the trajectory of MIRVs will only be able to engage targets in vicinity to the original target within a 100km radius.

Over the entire flight path of the missile... and considering the warheads of the TOPOL-M and RS-24 can manouver to evade ABMs I would suggest the figure is much much bigger than 100kms.

The point of MIRV is to get warheads through ABM defence where a single warhead would fail.

No the point of MIRVs is to enable attacks from multiple directions to ensure that if one missile fails that all targets get good coverage. It also means you can increase exponentially the number of warheads you have without greatly increasing cost.

[quote]Then they disperse for maximum kills over population centers. Russian MIRVs are INS set for city killing dispersal patterns, not PGMs like American MIRVs can be. You might be able to replace two missiles for one with the MIRVs, but not a missile for each MIRV.[quote]

If Russian MIRVs were only used for city busting then they wouldn't bother with MIRVs, they would simply have stayed with MRVs which merely fall in a spread pattern over one large area target like a city.

The missile warhead design intended to evade ABMs is called MaRV and is pretty much what the TOPOL-M and Bulava and RS-24 warheads are.

Most planners for nuclear war will cross target so for instance if you are talking about a large city like London you would have one warhead from a Delta III sub missile aimed at London and another warhead from that same missile aimed at Paris and the rest would be aimed at other targets on the way. A different sub, say it was a Typhoon when they were in service might have had one missile with a warhead aimed at London and one a Paris and other targets in Europe etc etc so that every target was covered with lots of different sources so if one sub is sunk before it can launch all its missiles that all targets still get a good thrashing.

hey Garry;
I need some details here; I cannot understand your usage of two words>>MRV & MaRV
By the way isn't MIRV & MRV same thing?? & also plz elaborate what PGMs is??

If I may so infer, I think by MRV he means - Multiple Reentry Vehicle, and by MaRV he probably means - Maneuverable Reentry Vehicle. PGM means Precision Guided Munition, so basically anything that isn't shot "dumb".

An MRV is a warhead bus of an ICBM or SLBM that releases all onboard warheads at a single target.

If you think about it some cities are difficult targets for a single warhead no matter how large that warhead is.

If the city has a large area and worse if the are is hilly you might not effectively destroy that city with one warhead.

The first solution was MRV which simply means multiple reentry vehicles, in this case usually 2-3 warheads that are released a specific distance from one target so they land in a spread pattern on one area target. The power of a nuclear warhead is governed by the law of diminished returns. Making a bomb twice as powerful will not destroy twice the area and kill twice the number of people.

It is the same logic behind cluster bomb munitions against Area targets. Against a hard target then a single large warhead is normally best.

A large area target like London can be more efficiently destroyed with 3 x 500KT warheads evenly spread in a triangle pattern than by dropping a 5MT warhead right in the middle. The more powerful warhead will simply make a deeper crater. The 3 warheads will spread the damage significantly and also triple the flash and blast damage.

MRVs are simple... they are released to fall in a spread pattern but not a precise one and 3 x 500KT are cheaper to make than a single 5MT bomb anyway.

An MIRV is Multiple Independantly targeted Reentry Vehicles which also carries several warheads in the warhead bus but the warhead bus manoeuvres during its flight path and can drop the reentry vehicles on fairly precise targets along the flight path of the missile. This means that you can put 6-10 warheads in one missile and choose a trajectory that allows 6-10 targets to be hit.

The warheads still just fall to target but they are precisely aimed by the warhead bus onto a specific target just like a single warhead missile does.

Finally the MaRV has manoeuvrable re entry vehicles. This means that the warheads themselves have the capacity to manoeuvre which means that targets further off the main missiles flight path can be attacked and also that during its reentry on target it can manoeuvre to make ABM interception difficult.
It can also improve accuracy on target and greatly reduce CEP.

(CEP is circular error probable and is a measure of accuracy. Normally a CEP of say 10m means that 50% of missiles or bombs or shells fired will land within a circle of 10m radius. Multiply that by 4 and you get the 99% circle. So if a TOPOL-M has a CEP of 50m then draw a circle around the point of aim that is 200m diameter and 99% of missiles launched will land within this circle.

And PGM is as Ironsight sniper says is a precision guided munition.

This is an american term for guided weapons whether they are projectiles, missiles, or unpowered bombs.

Nice Video Indeed , I would suggest you keep some type of background music except for the natural sound of launches which is always nice to hear and keeps it realistic.

This is the first time I saw good Bulava footage ,looks like a nice small missile. Good Work !

1st Missile Regiment RS-24 Yars to be complete by end of 2011

MOSCOW, April 19. (ARMS-TASS). The first missile regiment Teykovskogo connections received on arms promising land for peace (PGRK) "yars" with an intercontinental ballistic missile RS-24 will be brought to the whole (three battalions) to the end of 2011, Polk put on combat duty March 4, 2011 in structure of the command post and two missile divisions.

According to ITAR-TASS news agency spokesman Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) Colonel Vadim Koval, a rocket Teykovskoe Compound (Ivanovo region) enters military equipment to complete the acquisition of the first regiment, armed PGRK "yars". "New equipment is designed for acquisition of 3 - second missile battalion, - he said. - Before the end of 2011, the regiment will be brought to the Whole. "

"In 2009, the plan re-SRF Teykovskom missile compound was completed statement to alert the second missile regiment equipped with PGRK Topol-M" - recalled Koval. Thus, by the end of 2011 in conjunction Teykovskom on duty will located about 30 mobile launchers PGRK Topol-M "and" yars.

RS-24 ICBMs with multiple warheads developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering under the leadership of George Solomon.

"Adopting an ICBM RS-24 will enhance the combat capabilities of the shock group SRF to overcome missile defense systems and strengthen the deterrence potential of Russian strategic nuclear forces - said Koval. - This missile will replace the aging multiply SS-18 and RS-20 as the end of their extended service lives. "

"In the future, together with the already adopting a one-piece SS-12m2 (missiles Topol-M silo-based and mobile), ICBM RS-24 form the basis of the Strategic Rocket Forces strike group, which will be capable in the Russian strategic nuclear forces to reliably provide security country and its allies until the middle of the twenty-first century "- the representative of the SRF.

New rocket SMF invulnerable to all parts of the flight and are able to break through any possible missile defense in the next 20 years

If google translation does not cheat and they seem to not translate this quite well , General Sergei Karakayev, says

1 ) RS-24 has short boost phase and aggressively maneuvers during boost phase due to powerful engine making interception based pre-calculated path impossible to forecast.

He mentions boost phase being most vulnerable and how light weight ,powerful engine and control surface developed for boost phase of flight which has been validated in flight

2 ) During ex-atmospheric phase they use combination of decoys and jammers and the warhead own radar and thermal radiation is significantly reduced due to use of special shape and special coating.

3 ) During re-entry phase a special heavy decoy is used which make is impossible to distinguish between real warhead and decoys from the earth.


This is the first time I have come across RS-24 being described in quite detail

Full story: Liquid versus Solid Propulsion: Russia

Most important points in favor of liquid propulsion:

• News: But the solid rocket safer, including in environmentally ...
  
  Herbert: Agreed. Liquid propellant uses dangerous poisons: heptyl and amyl. But they should be aware that the Soviet Union and now Russia has 50 years experience in storage and exploitation of such missiles. All of them are well protected in our mines, protected from the terrorists and even the impact of external conditions. All complexes of the fourth generation have ampulized fuel tanks.They are filled in once during the formulation of the mine on duty or in the factory. All for some reason keep silent about the fact that per year we manufacture 10-15 rockets Proton, which has same fuel composed of the same heptyl and amyl! In each of them, by the way, 600 tons of liquid fuel is stored. A carrier rocket Dnepr, which have 2-4 launches per year; each of them contains 200 tons of liquid fuel.
  
• News: But Solomon has another argument. Solid rocket better pass defense system of the enemy. At the same time, liquid make it worse, and therefore has a high probability of intercept ...
  
  Herbert: As a panacea for all possible cases they put forward an argument about the so-called short flight path of solid propellant missiles. That is, the machine starts quickly. Quickly reaches the separation (when the warheads are dispensed)., making it difficult to detect and intercept. I must say that things are not so simple. The difference between "short" and "long" (as in the liquid propellant), the trajectory is not so great. Not only boosting time but also maneuvering capability too is important. This maneuvering rate of liquid propellant is disproportionately higher than that of solid. We must take into account the fact that if a working missile defense system is really created, then the so-called "bus" technology would dispense 6 to 10 warheads in a very short time. This would not be accomplished as a group disbursement of warheads, as described by Yuri Solomonov. Instead, it would be done using the bus, with a somewhat different algorithm of choosing the targets on the enemy's territory.
  
  Solomonov is against the bus, because he is a proponent of independently-guided warheads. This means that they each will have its own control system. At some point, they seemed to scatter in different directions on the principle of the crowd, making them difficult to intercept, and then have everyone fly to the target. This means that each must have its high-precision control system, so as not to lose accuracy when you need it. Have its own propulsion system with its fuel tank. To everyone else is needed and a set of technical means to overcome missile defenses.
  
  "The Bus" - it is for all warheads a common, flexible: guidance system, fuel and means to overcome missile defenses. It is worth remembering that the proposed Solomon option sometime in the early days of our youth in the 60's, was considered and rejected. Rejected because it requires one and a half times the cost of mass, and entails the loss of flexibility in overcoming anti-missile defence. Such a solution can be realized only in missiles with a large throw-weight that is heavy liquid missile as compared to solid propelled missiles.
  
• News: But we have the state's position: the production of armaments and military equipment shall be exclusively its own?
  
  Herbert: But we still need Ukraine to maintain combat status of our missile systems components. Even in the worst case we can save from decommissioned RS-20 missile the transport-launching containers. They are eternal. They are very complex engineering structures. They will only need to remount the block management system. You can save starter batteries, replacing the solid fuel after the warranty period of its operation. Finally, even if all will not be enough money - just to sort for recycling most of the first-stage engine. They need to replace a few gaskets. These missiles could also serve as 25-30 years.
  
  I confess that it goes across the interests of our industrialists who wish to engage in work on a new liquid ballistic missile. But if we really want to quickly get a new missile with high live performance, this way seems to me most true.

nightcrawler , great post and nice find.

Its really a rebuttal from NPO-Mash on the constant sound bites by Yuri recently and his opposition to solid fuel.

It also throws good point that RS-24/Bulava has independent guided warhead and does not depend on bus type technology , plus it also mentions that Bulava is a very advanced missile , I admire Yuri Solomonov for building this advanced missile irrespective of his views on liquid fuel.

Now coming back to liquid fuel , it certainly going to be cheaper bang per buck and can be quickly made , the first two stages will be similar to SS-18 but the third stage and warhead control will be all new.

It also throw light on how strong the silos are and the experiment Argon proves it , they could not scratch a paint in the silos and still launch the missile is a very telling thing

There will be a constant battle between solid and liquid propellents for missiles, but for space lift vehicles cryogenic liquid fuels are currently the best option.

GarryB wrote:There will be a constant battle between solid and liquid propellents for missiles, but for space lift vehicles cryogenic liquid fuels are currently the best option.

Yes it is for Space Launch Liquid Fuel Rules.

I am so damn suprised the RS-24 is so damn sophisticated , hopefully they can increase their benchmark with the new Liquid Fuel ICBM.

Liquid Fuel ICBM looks cheaper bang per ton and easily available and deployable.

In the west the choice is fairly simple for ICBMs... they invested a lot of money on solid fuel propellent and neglected liquid fuel technology so for the US the decision is simple except for cryogenic fuels.

For Russia they spent a lot more money making liquid fuels easier to handle and manage and on making the fuels themselves more efficient and powerful.

This means the choice the other way in Russia is a better option till the money is invested in solid fuels to make them a better option.

Looks are deceiving. American military looks good but they've been dying young from polluted water/food.

it isn't deceiving but a sad fact when soldiers have to wear urban and marine camo in the forest becouse the military warehouses just give them what ever shit they have in the warehous or fake body armours or old obsolete body armours or not even any at all becouse they don't give a shit about our soldiers, our that they ignored the abuse of soldiers since decades, my friend.... in my book thats noting less then treason

Does Russia have a problem with people dying before they are 40 from kidney cancer? No?

ohh we don't? reeeeally? do you realy want to bring that up?

well we have severe liver problems lets say that oh and maybe wolrds worst narcotics abuse, our youth drinks like crazy and our middel aged people drink like crazy and even our old people still drink tons of alcohol, and what does our goverment do to protect our stupid incompetent population from destrony ourselfs? put some anti-drinking TV adds and billboards up and then "escalate" by puting a slightly higher tax on them... what a joke of a caring goverment, bunch of liberal traitors

Russia creates new mega-powerful ballistic missile. 45073.jpegRussia's Defense Ministry reported about the progress in the domestic missile industry. First and foremost, the first missile regiment has been rearmed completely with state-of-the-art Yars mobile missile systems. Secondly, Russian engineers have developed Liner sea-based strategic missile. The new missile is said to be twice as more powerful as the Bulava missile, which had a number of failures during test-launches.

Officials from the ministry said that the first missile regiment armed with latest Yars missile complexes was on full duty. The complexes are equipped with RS-24 thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. The missile was developed by engineers of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology under the guidance of academician Yuri Solomonov. The missile has been created with the use of technological solutions used in Topol-M systems, which significantly shortened the terms and costs of the production.

The new missile will strengthen the combat capacity of Russian missile troops, as well as the nuclear deterrence potential of Russian strategic nuclear forces. The RS-24 missile will replace the outdated RS-18 and RS-20 ballistic missiles as their service terms are drawing to an end. In the future, Yars and Topol-M missile systems will make the basis of the strike force of Russian missile troops.

The missiles are capable of breaking through any air defense system during the upcoming 15-20 years, Sergei Karakayev, the commander of the Russian missile troops said. This remark is especially important against the background of the current dispute between Moscow and Washington regarding the creation of the missile defense system in Europe.

The sea-based Liner strategic missile, the tests of which started successfully with the launch on May 20, is capable of carrying from nine to twelve warheads. Thus, Liner is more powerful than Bulava, specialists of Makeyev's State Missile Center said.

The Bulava missile can carry only six low power class warheads, whereas the Liner is capable of carrying 1.5-2 times more. Engineers also said that the Liner missile can be equipped with warheads of different power classes.

The Liner missile surpasses all modern solid-fuel strategic missiles of Britain, China, Russia, the USA and France. The military equipment of the missile (four medium power class warheads) is comparable to the US Trident-2 (also four warheads).

Sineva and Liner complexes will guarantee the existence of the group of 667BDRM project submarines for 35-40 years, i.e. till 2025-2030.

It is worthy of note that Russia's Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov approved the start of the serial production of Bulava missiles in the beginning of July. The missiles are to be deployed on board Yuri Dolgoruky submarines. The Yuri Dolgoruky sub performed a successful launch of the Bulava missile at the end of June. The Bulava will make the basis of the perspective group of strategic nuclear forces of Russia before 2040-2045

http://english.pravda.ru/russia/economics/09-08-2011/118691-ballistic_missile_russia-0/

Russia to deploy 2nd Yars ballistic missile regiment by yearend
Yars

Yars
© Photo Press Service of the Russian Defense Ministry
20:52 26/09/2011
MOSCOW, September 26 (RIA Novosti)

A second regiment equipped with Yars mobile ballistic missile systems will be put on combat duty in central Russia by the end of 2011, Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) commander Lt. Gen. Sergei Karakayev said on Monday.

The Yars missile system is armed with the RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile that has considerably better combat and operational capabilities than the Topol-M (SS-27 Stalin). Russia fully deployed the first Yars regiment consisting of three battalions in August 2011.

"The second regiment equipped with Yars mobile systems will be put on combat duty with the Teikovo missile division [in the Ivanovo region] by the end of 2011," Karakayev said.

The SMF said in August that the Topol-M and RS-24 missiles would be the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia's nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80% of the SMF's arsenal by 2016.

The RS-24 is a new-generation intercontinental ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads, while Topol-M is a single-warhead missile.

As of August 2011, the SMF operated at least 50 silo-based and 18 road-mobile Topol-M missile systems, and nine RS-24 systems.

http://www.en.ria.ru/mlitary_news/20110926/167153127.html

Russia's Yars ballistic missile fails test launch
 
Russia's Space Forces confirmed on Wednesday the failure of a test-firing of a Yars (RS-24) intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome.

The launch was the first of a prototype modification of the missile, according to a defense industry source.

"The firing from Plesetsk on September 27 was part of testing by the manufacturer of a new series of missiles," Space Forces spokesman Colonel Alexei Zolotukhin said.

The test concerned a new warhead bus for the solid-fuel RS-24, according to a military source.

"The new multiple warhead section would upgrade the capabilities of this missile to take on future missile defense systems," the source told RIA Novosti.

http://www.en.ria.ru/mlitary_news/20110928/167212598.html

The only successful mobile ballistic missile would be one aimed not up....but aimed just above the tree line and fired off. Have hypersonic missile at end of ballistic missile to reach target.

Would get by HAARP, Airborne Laser, THAAD, Patriot...everything. Especially if undersea fibre optic cables were cut so radar trackings from various countries couldn't be fed to target area for a defense.

You could drive a TOPOL-M into an An-124 and fly it anywhere you want to launch from pretty much anywhere you want.
The newer missiles have very short but very powerful stage firings which reduces the period when the missile has an enormous IR flare at its base illuminating its position to anyone looking in that general direction. After those stages have burned out the warheads deploy... as do the decoys... getting up to speed and into space where air friction is zero is the top priority of any long range missile.

You are not hidden till you deploy your decoys...

Russia to Train Contract Soldiers for Yars Missile Systems

RIA Novosti

14:00 18/01/2012 MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - More than 4,000 contracted soldiers will take training courses in 2012 to be able to operate the new Yars (RS-24) ballistic missile systems, a spokesman for Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) said on Wednesday.

The RS-24 is a new-generation intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) capable of carrying multiple warheads.

“Over 4,000 contracted soldiers, serving in the SMF, will take basic and advanced training and re-training courses in 2012,” Col. Vadim Koval said.

Koval said the three-month training programs would focus on the operation of Yars systems as the new missiles are gradually replacing the outdated ICBMs in the Russian nuclear arsenal.

The official also said the number of contracted soldiers in the SMF is expected to increase by over 20 percent by the end of this year.

The Yars missile system is armed with the RS-24 intercontinental ballistic missile that has considerably better combat and operational capabilities than the Topol-M (SS-27 Stalin).

Russia fully deployed the first Yars regiment consisting of three battalions on combat duty with the Teikovo missile division in central Russia in August 2011.

Two more missile divisions will start receiving the Yars systems in 2012. The Novosibirsk division [in Siberia] will receive mobile RS-24 systems, while the Kozelsk division (in central Russia) will be armed with the silo-based version of the system.

The SMF said last year that the Topol-M and RS-24 ballistic missiles would be the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia's nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80% of the SMF's arsenal by 2016.


http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/russia/2012/russia-120118-rianovosti02.htm

RS-24 missiles to replace UR-100NUTTH in Kozelsk

he Strategic Rocket Forces are removing some of the UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 missiles from silos at the Kozelsk division to make room for future deployment of silo-based RS-24 Yars missiles. Deployment of silo-based RS-24 missiles in Kozelsk was expected for some time - it was mentioned in 2008 and confirmed in 2011.

In the last START data exchange in 2009 Russia reported having 29 deployed SS-19 missiles in Kozelsk. There were the total of 50 silos at that point. According to the news story linked above, 20 missiles of this type have not been removed yet. Whether they will remain in service during the RS-24 deployment is not quite clear.

Also, it is not clear if the UR-100NUTTH missile in Tatishchevo are being removed. The Rocket Forces said that the division in Tatishchevo will complete "re-armament" by the end of 2012. A literal reading of this seems would imply that UR-100NUTTH (there were 40 of them in 2009) will be removed, but that does not seem to be the case - my colleagues tell me that UR-100NUTTH are still deployed there. Also, the Rocket Forces said that some of the UR-100NUTTH removed from Kozelsk might be deployed elsewhere. Tatishchevo seems to be the only option.

Among other things, this means that my estimate of the number of deployed UR-100NUTTH based on the New START data is quite a bit off - I assumed that Russia had 35 missiles of this type in March 2012. In fact, this number could be as high as 69 - 29 in Kozelsk and 40 in Tatishchevo. To complicate the New START data-based estimates, some of the missiles in Kozelsk were probably in silos with their warheads removed, so while the missiles were counted as operationally deployed, the number of warheads associated with them was zero.

http://russianforces.org/blog/2012/07/rs-24_missiles_to_replace_ur-1.shtml

Mobile RS-24 to be deployed in Irkutsk

It's an old news, but it's worth noting - in July 2012, the Rocket Forces said that they began preparations for deployment of RS-24 Yars missiles in Irkutsk (it's around 2:50 in the video) as well as in Novosibirsk (and silo-based RS-24 in Kozelsk).

The Novosibirsk and Kozelsk were identified earlier, but this was the first time I saw Irkutsk mentioned in this context. It looks like the mobile RS-24 deployment will be limited to these two divisions (three if we count Teykovo) - if the old consolidation plan is still in place, the four divisions in Vypolzovo, Yoshkar-Ola, Nizhniy Tagil, and Barnaul will be liquidated.

As far as I can tell, it is possible that the Topol missiles have already been withdrawn from Novosibirsk and Irkutsk, leaving about 108 Topol missiles in the active force.

http://russianforces.org/blog/2012/11/mobile_rs-24_to_be_deployed_in.shtml

MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti) - The first modernized intercontinental ballistic missile, Yars-M, will enter service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) later this year, RVSN Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karavayev said on Thursday.
A defense industry source previously told RIA Novosti the Armed Forces will take delivery of a fifth-generation Yars-M missile before the end of the current year.
Karavayev declined to provide any details, including the missile’s specifications.
The existing RS-24 Yars (NATO reporting name, SS-29) is a MIRV’ed ICBM that is heavier than the Topol-M (SS-27 Stalin) and can carry up to 10 independently targetable warheads.
The RVSN previously said that the Topol-M and RS-24 ballistic missiles will be the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia's nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80 percent of the RVSN’s arsenal by 2016.
Karavayev also said the Tatishchevo RVSN Division, near the city of Saratov in southwestern Russia, at present has 60 Topol-M missile systems.
The Topol-M missile, with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 km), is said to be immune to any current and planned US antiballistic missile defense. It is capable of making evasive maneuvers, and carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.
By 2020, the RVSN are expected to be equipped with over 170 Topol-Ms (mobile and silo-based), as well as 30 SS-19 and 108 RS-24 missile defense systems in nine divisions.
http://en.rian.ru/military_news/20130418/180717057/Russia-to-Get-New-ICBM-Later-this-Year.html