Russia To Modernize Iskander-M Missile System By 2020

Russia's Rostec state corporation will likely upgrade Iskander-M mobile missile system by 2020.

"In accordance with the adopted 'Vooruzheniye' [Armament] cluster strategy, we intend to improve tactical missile systems in the next 10 years. The upgraded version of Iskander-M will be presented after 2020," Rostec CEO Sergei Chemezov was quoted as saying by Sputnik news today.

The corporation's board adopted the armament strategy last Wednesday, April 5. The company has envisioned annual 17-percent profit increases into 2025 through the development of new products.

The 9K720 Iskander is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system produced and deployed by the Russian Federation.

The missile systems are aimed to replace the obsolete OTR-21 Tochka systems, still in use by the Russian armed forces, by 2020.

The road-mobile Iskander was the second attempt to replace the Scud missile. The first attempt, the Oka, was eliminated under the INF Treaty.

The Iskander appears to have several different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead, a fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high explosive-fragmentation warhead, an earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions. The missile can also carry nuclear warheads.

The first successful launch occurred in 1996.