Russia’s First ICBM To Enter Service Later This Year

Russia first modernized intercontinental ballistic missile, Yars-M, will enter service with the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) later this year, according to RVSN Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karavayev, who refused to provide additional details including the missile’s specifications.

According to Ria Novosti, the Armed Forces will take delivery of a fifth-generation Yars-M missile before the end of the current year.

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, according to the report.

Capable of making evasive maneuvers, the Topol-M missile is supposedly immune to any current and planned US antiballistic missile defense.

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.