Global Security Newswire

Russia this year supplied over 50 Topol-M and Yars ICBM trainer units to its Teikovo missile division, a military official told ITAR-Tass on Friday (see GSN, Nov. 3).

The Teikovo division -- located in the Ivanovo region in central Russia -- encompasses a single Yars regiment as well as two Topol-M regiments, Russian strategic missile forces spokesman Col. Vadim Koval said. The branch is slated under the Russian Defense Ministry's schedule to receive 30 movable Topol-M and Yars firing units before 2012.

Seven types of fourth- and fifth-generation missiles -- four designed for firing from underground facilities and three from transferable launchpads -- are overseen by the strategic missile forces, according to ITAR-Tass. The subterranean missiles comprise 45 percent of the service's arsenal and hold 85 percent of its nuclear warheads (ITAR-Tass, Nov. 11).