PLESETSK, Arkhangelsk Region. Aug 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The 183rd training center of the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) in Plesetsk has started retraining the personnel of a regiment reporting to the SMF's Teikovo missile division to master the new Topol-M mobile system, center chief Colonel Vladimir Zagorny said on Thursday.
"The personnel are trained in all missile professions. The retraining will end with a special tactical exercise and a so-called 'dry launch'," Zagorny told Interfax-Military News Agency.
He explained that there will be no real missile launches at the end of the training.
According to Zagorny, the regiment personnel will commission the first mobile Topol-M missile systems in Plesetsk and will travel with them together to the permanent stationing areas in Teikovo, Ivanovo region, upon completion of the retraining.
"Retraining plans and methods are being tested in practice. They will be later used to train the personnel of other regiments of the Teikovo division," he said.
Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, said earlier that the first three mobile Topol-M missile launchers will enter the inventory in 2006.
The 183rd center has trained 86 missile regiments and held over 100 combat training launches since 1994. Over 45,000 junior commanders and specialists for SMF units have graduated from it.