Updated 09:18 a.m. Moscow Time
MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian army will bring the number of brigades armed with Iskander-M theater ballistic missile systems to seven by 2016, Commander-in-Chief of the Land Force, Col.Gen. Oleg Salyukov, said Wednesday.
"There are four Iskander-M brigades in service with the army," Salyukov told reporters.
"One more brigade in the Central Military District will be equipped with Iskander systems by the end of 2014, while the Southern and Eastern military districts will each receive an Iskander brigade in 2015," the general said.
The Iskander-M is a missile system equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage guided missiles.
The supply of the system is carried under a contract signed in 2011 between the Russian Defense Ministry and military industrial corporation Mashinostroyenia.
Iskander is one of the country's most powerful missile strike systems used by the Russian Ground Forces. The systems were successfully tested in 2007. The Russian Army currently uses its Iskander-M and Iskander-K variants.
