http://en.rian.ru/russia/20080505/106575995.html
Russia plans to test launch 9 ballistic missiles in 2008
MOSCOW, May 5 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) are
planning to conduct nine test launches of ballistic missiles in 2008, the SMF
commander said on Monday.
"One of the main tasks for us in 2008 is to test new [ballistic] missile
systems and to extend the service life of the existing complexes," Col. General
Nikolai Solovtsov said. "This program includes nine test launches of ballistic
missiles."
According to the SMF commander, Russia puts an average of three mobile and
three or four fixed-site Topol-M ballistic missile systems into operation every
year, and the SMF will double its test launches of intercontinental ballistic
missiles after 2009.
At present, Russia operates 48 silo-based Topol-M systems (NATO reporting name
SS-27) and will deploy another two with a missile regiment in the Saratov
Region in southern Russia this year, bringing the total number to 50.
The missile, with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 km), is said to be
immune to any current and future U.S. ABM defense. It is capable of making
evasive maneuvers to avoid a kill using terminal phase interceptors, and
carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.
It is also shielded against radiation, electromagnetic pulse, nuclear blasts,
and is designed to survive a hit from any known form of laser technology.
The first Topol-M mobile missile battalion, equipped with three road-mobile
systems, was put on combat duty with a missile unit stationed near the town of
Teikovo, about 150 miles (240 km) northeast of Moscow, on December 12, 2006.
Solovtsov said earlier a second missile battalion, equipped with Topol-M mobile
ICBMs, would be put on combat duty in the near future and the deployment of
silo-based Topol-M systems in the Saratov Region and road-mobile systems in the
Ivanovo Region (central Russia) would be completed in 2010.
He reiterated that Russia would equip the Topol-M missile systems with multiple
independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRV) in the next two or three years.
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