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Vladimir Putin has termed the Strategic Missile Force status during the Defense Ministry Board TASS 41712152.
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Defence & Security News - Russia
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| Vladimir Putin has termed the Strategic Missile Force status during the Defense Ministry Board | |||
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has termed the honing of the Strategic Missile Force’s capabilities the force development priority at the expanded session of the Defense Ministry Board. The Strategic Missile Force is marking its 56th anniversary on December 17.
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 Russian President Vladimir Putin and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu |
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"Special attention must be paid to strengthening the capabilities of the strategic nuclear forces and implementing defense-related space programs," the president said. "As planned, all components of the nuclear triad must be furnished with advanced weapons, and the effectiveness of the missile early warning and aerospace defense systems must be increased." According to Putin, the development of the support infrastructure of the strategic nuclear forces must carry on. He explained that he meant the position areas of the Strategic Missile Force’s large units, ballistic missile submarine home stations and long-range bomber airfields.
The Russian president had said before that every fifth ruble out of the 22 trillion rubles ($28.5 billion) set aside for the 2020 Armament Acquisition Program would be spent on the strategic nuclear forces, i.e. virtually 20% of the budget earmarked for the modernization of the Armed Forces as a whole. Under a 2016 federal budget draft, the spending on the nuclear arms development and production will grow from 44.5 billion rubles ($633 million) in 2015 to 48.3 billion rubles ($688 million) in 2016. Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the strategic nuclear forces will receive over 50 items of materiel, including 35 intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM). The Strategic Missile Force has over 95% of its inventory ready for launch at all times. According to the US Department of State, the United States had had 898 deployed and non-deployed ICBM launchers, submarine-launched ballistic missiles and strategic bombers by September 1, 2015, with Russia’s inventory of the kind being 877. The United States had 762 deployed delivery vehicles, while Russia had 526. The re-entry vehicles on the US deployed missiles numbered 1,538, and Russia’s ones totaled 1,648. |
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 RS-24 Yars Nuclear Intercontinental ballistic missile |
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According to the data exchanged under the New START Treaty, the Strategic Missile Force presumably operated 305 missile systems of five types, which were able to carry 1,166 nuclear re-entry vehicles, as of early 2015. The missile breakdown is as follows: 46 R36M (RS-20V, NATO reporting name: Satan) missiles, 60 UR-100NUTTKh’s (RS-18B, SS-19 Mod. 3 Stiletto), 72 ground-mobile Topols (SS-25 Sickle), 60 silo-based Topol-Ms and 18 ground-mobile Topol-Ms (SS-27 Sickle Mod. 2). Four silo-based and 45 ground-mobile RS-24 Yars missiles were deployed in 2014.
The force development plan for the Strategic Missile Force provides for retaining the R-36M2s in service until about 2022. The UR-100NUTTKh missiles will have been on alert duty at least until 2020 and at most until 2030. Now, the Topol missiles are being discarded from the inventory due to the expiry of their service lives. They are slated for decommissioning in 2021 and will be succeeded by the mobile RS-24 Yars and advanced RS-26 mobile system. The latter will start fielding in 2016. "The RS-244 ICBM of the Yars ground-mobile system will make up the mainstay of the Strategic Missile Force along with the RS-12M2 single-warhead ICBM of the Topol system in the near future," Strategic Missile Force Commander Sergei Karakayev stressed. |
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