Recently, the Russian Strategic Missile Force, the only armed service, which has never seen any military action, celebrated its 53rd anniversary. The process of rearming missile divisions will continue. In 2012, two divisions received new missile systems, and a third division also started converting to new missiles. Three missile divisions are to be rearmed in 2013.

       Recently, the Russian Strategic Missile Force, the only armed service, which has never seen any military action, celebrated its 53rd anniversary.

       An official conference dealing with this event was held in Vlasikha near Moscow where the High Command of the Strategic Missile Force and its Central Command Center are located. The conference involved retired officers of the Force, off-duty officers and their wives, as well as representatives of regional and municipal authorities, the Russian Orthodox Church, which maintains particularly close relations with the Force, and numerous guests. Colonel General Sergei Karakayev, Commander of the Strategic Missile Force, was interviewed by journalists attending the event.

       The conversion to the US-style reservist-training model requires substantial funding.

       A scandal has flared up around the Oboronservice Company after a Defense Ministry system for monitoring budget expenditures was dismantled.

       Two days before the celebrations, General Karakayev invited several journalists, including the author of this article, who write about military issues and the Strategic Missile Force, to his office for a chat. And I would like to share my impressions of many issues, which were discussed, with the readers.

       First of all, General Karakayev told us that two missile divisions had been rearmed completely throughout 2012. RT-2PM2 Topol-M / SS-27 Sickle-B solid-propellant and single-warhead intercontinental ballistic missiles have been placed inside the silos of the Sixth Missile Regiment in the town of Tatishchevo near Saratov. The Strategic Missile Force, which has received all the required Topol-M ICBMs, will continue to deploy other missile systems.

       The Teikovo Division of the Strategic Missile Force, which is deployed near Ivanovo, has also been rearmed completely in 2012. The Division’s four regiments have received two Topol-M single-warhead ICBM systems and two RS-24 Yars / SS-29 ICBM systems with multiple independently targeted reentry vehicle warheads. Both ICBMs are, in fact, fifth-generation land-mobile missile systems. This year, two more missile divisions near Novosibirsk and Kozelsk in the Kaluga Region started receiving the RS-24 Yars missile system. The Kozelsk Division will deploy silo-based, rather than land-mobile, RS-24 Yars missiles, which will replace liquid-propellant UR-100NUTTKH (SS-19 Stiletto) ICBMs with six MIRV-ed warheads. These missiles have been deployed near the Optina Hermitage Monastery in the Kaluga Region for many decades, and they have already expended their service life.

       The process of rearming missile divisions will continue. In 2012, two divisions received new missile systems, and a third division also started converting to new missiles. Three missile divisions are to be rearmed in 2013. The Kozelsk and Novosibirsk divisions are being rearmed. The First Missile Regiment of the Nizhny Tagil Missile Division has also started receiving new missiles. Preparations to rearm the Irkutsk and Yasny missile divisions have also been completed. All of them will receive the new RS-24 Yars solid-propellant ICBM system. Land-mobile and silo-based versions of this missile system will be deployed. General Karakayev says that land-mobile missile systems are better protected from a hypothetical enemy strike. Russia’s partners know the coordinates of silo-based missile launchers in line with the START-I and START-III Treaties. At the same time, it is almost impossible to pinpoint the exact location of land-mobile missiles. This fall, the Strategic Missile Force held a special exercise to conceal the deployment routes of land-mobile missile systems. Special force units and reconnaissance satellites managed to locate missile mock-ups. At the same time, real missiles remained undetected.

       Apart from solid-propellant missile systems, which are currently being deployed, Russia continues to develop a new heavy-duty liquid-propellant missile, due to replace the world’s heaviest R-36M2 / RS-20V Voyevoda / SS-18 Satan ICBM with ten warheads, which was developed at the Yuzhnoye (Southern) Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. No one is trying to conceal this R&D project. The Voyevoda missile has already expended its service life by 50%. Although designers say it will remain on combat duty for the next ten years, this missile should be scrapped by 2022. And a new SS-18 Satan-type missile is scheduled to be deployed by that time.

       In reality, that missile will have a different name. It will weigh 110 metric tons, or twice as less as the Voyevoda ICBM. Nevertheless, experts say that it will have more than ten independently targeted warheads. And its range will also considerably exceed that of current ICBMs. Although its range remains classified, General Karakayev says it will be able to hit targets virtually all over the world. He was talking about the possibility of developing a highly accurate liquid-propellant strategic missile with a conventional warhead similar to the one now being developed by the United States. But it appears that a conventional warhead can be easily replaced with a nuclear warhead.

       General Karakayev explained the need for a liquid-propellant missile by that irrepressible US striving to deploy a global missile-defense system and the European elements of that system. Currently, this system does not threaten European Russian strategic nuclear deterrence forces in any way. The Commander of the Strategic Missile Force says the situation might change only during the fourth stage of the European missile-defense system’s adaptive deployment. Consequently, Moscow would have to deploy its missiles in remote Russian territories, where they cannot be hit by current and advanced missile-defense systems, as well as by other missile systems, including space weapons, if the United States decides to deploy the latter. Russia’s territory is large enough to permit this. Moreover, Russia won’t have to build any new missile silos, and it will only use available ones. As for a worst-case scenario, not a single missile-defense system will be able to deal with a Russian retaliatory strike.

       About 12 years ago, the late Marshal Igor Sergeyev, the former Commander of the Strategic Missile Force and Defense Minister, noted that it would be possible to implement a military reform in any direction, provided that Russia retained a reliable Strategic Missile Force, and that this would not impair national security in any way. It appears that various paradoxes and contradictions of the national military reform can be explained by this factor.

       This article was originally published in Russian on www.ng.ru

       Views expressed are of individual Members and Contributors, rather than the Club's, unless explicitly stated otherwise.