The commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces announced that his service plans to carry out 11 ballistic missile launches in 2013. This is the same number of launches that the Rocket Forces expected to conduct in 2012.
The actual number of launches in 2012 fell short of the expectations. There were only four launches in 2012 - two tests of the new ICBM (reported to be Avangard) in May 2012 and in October 2012, and two tests of Topol missiles - from Kapustin Yar to Sary-Shagan (to test a new warhead) in June 2012 and one from Plesetsk in October 2012. (The fifth launch counted by Karakayev is the UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 launch in December 2011 - it was included as a launch in the 2012 academic year.)
The Rocket Forces planned to conduct four Dnepr/R-36MUTTH space launches, but none took place in 2012. Five Dnepr launches are scheduled in 2013, but none of them has a specific date.
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