VLASIKHA (Moscow region), May 5 (RIA Novosti) - The first mobile complex Topol-M will enter on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) in 2006, the RVSN commander said. According to Nikolai Solovtsov, the silo-based Topol-M missile complexes are now in service in the Russian troops. "The RVSN retains the possibility to have both stationary and mobile Topol-M units in combat service," he said.
Solovtsov noted that six types of combat missile systems are now on combat duty in the Russian RVSN but in perspective it is planned to switch over to one type - the silo-based and mobile Topol-M.
Solovtsov said five regiments of the RVSN are now armed with silo-based Topol-M missile complexes.
Speaking of the mobile variant of the missile system, the RVSN commander noted that this complex is considered by the military to be highly promising, since it is fitted out with a more up-to-date missile and has higher technical characteristics.
The modernized missile complex Topol-M - the first missile complex made only by Russian enterprises - forms the nucleus of the whole grouping of the Strategic Missile Forces. The intercontinental strategic complex is a three-stage monounit solid-fuel rocket "packed" in a transport-launch container in which it can stay not less than for 15 years. The service life is more than 20 years.
