MOSCOW, June 23 (RIA Novosti) - Russia will have commissioned three road-mobile Topol-M ICBMs this year, the Strategic Missile Forces commander said Saturday.
"In the end of 2007 we will commission another missile battalion equipped with newest Topol-M ICBMs at Teikovo missile base, Ivanovo Region," Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov said, addressing the graduates of Russia's top missile force academy.
Earlier this year Solovtsov said 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.
As of December 2006, the Strategic Missile Forces operated 44 silo-based and three mobile missiles. The SMF press service said that, while 48 silo-based systems would be on duty by late 2007, the Teikovo base is being migrated to cutting-edge road-mobile missiles.
