The missile division in Teykovo received a new regiment of three Topol-M missiles on December 16, 2007. With this regiment becoming operational, the number of Topol-M missiles in the Strategic Rocket Forces reached 50. In addition to that, four silo-based are expected to be brought into operation at Tatishchevo by the end of the year.
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Purely a speculative question, do we anticipate that any of the existing SS-27s, either mobile or silo based, will be MIRVed in the future?
Frank Shuler
USA
Right now it looks like only the mobile version will be MIRVed. If I remember correctly, silo-based deployment will be largely complete by 2010. I don't think the Rocket Forces will retrofit already deployed missiles with MIRVs.
So, our assumptions are the 60 or so planned silo SS-27 Topol-M missiles will remain a single warhead weapon as well as the few already deployed mobile SS-27s. The RS-24 will then supersede the basic SS-27 in production and be deployed.
Frank Shuler
USA