Russian Strategic Missile troops to conduct 120 training exercises over the next 6 months 0506144.

“Amid heightened intensity of combat training in the summer period, strategic missilemen will carry out more than 40 staff trainings and around 20 command post rehearsals, 10 command-staff exercises, 50 tactical and special tactical training exercises”, said col. Yegorov.

He also added: “We’ve scheduled 12 intercontinental ballistic missile launches until the end of 2014, including test launches as part of development and engineering program of advanced varieties of missilery."

Among Strategic Missile Troops’ key plans for next year is setting Kozyelsk, Tagil and Novosibirsk units on alert and equipping them with RS-24 Yars (SS-29) intercontinental ballistic missiles.

According to Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov, by 2020 Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces could be re-equipped with advanced weaponry in full, instead of previously estimated 70%.

Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops’ primary task is nuclear deterrence. In May, Russia’s Armed Forces conducted a massive exercise involving a so-called “launch under attack” – a simulation of deterring a nuclear missile strike. Some of the Western officials have condemned the move, considering it to be attached to the situation in Ukraine.

Russia has been protesting US program of erecting missile shield in Eastern Europe for years. The US claim it is aimed at countering threats from the Middle East, not from Russia.