TASS:
MOSCOW, December 18. /TASS/. The Russian Strategic Missile Force will make operational 31 Yars and Avangard intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) next year, Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said at the ministry’s year-end enlarged board meeting attended by President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
“The Defense Ministry is set to accomplish several priority tasks in 2019,” Shoigu said.
“With regard to the strategic nuclear forces, 31 launchers with the Yars and Avangard ICBMs will assume combat duty in the Strategic Missile Force,” the defense chief said.
As Strategic Missile Force Commander Sergei Karakayev said in an interview with the newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda on December 17, the first Avangard missile complexes armed with the hypersonic glide vehicle will assume combat duty in the Dombarovsky missile division in the Orenburg Region in the south Urals in 2019.