Russia Scraps Old Topol ICBM Launchers

The Russian Defense Ministry said yesterday it has completed destruction of aging Topol missile launchers at its Pibanshur scrapping base in the Udmurt Republic, ITAR-Tass reported (see GSN, Aug. 16).

“The elimination, which began 5 September in keeping with the procedures envisaged by the START treaty, was carried out under the control of a U.S. inspection group. Nine Topol launchers at the end of their useful life were eliminated during this period,” the Defense Ministry said. “In all, 18 Topol launchers have been eliminated since the start of the year.”

“Production capacities at the scrapping bases make it possible to cope fully with the volume of work for the scrapping of missile system which have come to the end of their useful life,” said Col. Gen. Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (ITAR-Tass/BBC Monitoring, Sept. 20).

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