MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) - The Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) have completed the rearmament of a division stationed in the Orenburg region with the new Avangard missile system armed with a hypersonic warhead, RVSN Commander Sergei Karakayev said.
"Our plans for rearming the stationary group have been practically accomplished. The rearmament of the Yasny unit in the Orenburg region with the Avangard missile system has been completed," Karakayev said in an interview published in the Defense Ministry's official newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda.
"The RVSN completed putting missile regiments armed with the Avangard missile system on combat duty in 2023 by commissioning silo-based launchers controlled by Bugai unified command stations," he said.
"The rearmament of the missile division in Kozelsk with the Yars missile system will be completed in 2025. The near-term plans include rearming the Tatishchevo missile division with the Yars missile system," he said.
"We loaded another missile into the launcher at the Kozelsk missile unit literally yesterday," he said.
"The priority plans for 2025 include rearming with Yars missile systems the missile divisions where a silo-based variant of the Topol-M system is on combat duty in the Saratov region and a road-mobile variant in the Ivanovo region," Karakayev said.
The RVSN is also mulling the establishment of new units in the context of plans to start the serial production of the new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile system, he said.
The RVSN is a branch of the Russian Armed Forces and the main component of its strategic nuclear forces, whose role is to provide nuclear deterrence of possible aggression.
The Avangard is a new Russian strategic missile system featuring a hypersonic glide warhead, which, as officially reported, is capable of reaching around 27 Mach velocity. The system has been developed by the Reutov-based NPO Mashinostroyeniya machine building association, which is part of Tactical Missiles Corporation.
It has also been reported that Yars road-mobile and silo-based strategic missile systems make up the core of the RVSN. According to official data, they are capable of hitting targets at a top range of 11,000 kilometers using multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRV).
President Vladimir Putin has said earlier that the Russian Armed Forces struck a Ukrainian defense industry facility in Dnepropetrovsk with the new Oreshnik medium-range ballistic missile armed with a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead on November 21.