The Strategic Rocket Forces just confirmed that in December 2013 first regiments of RS-24 Yars missiles will begin service in Nizhniy Tagil, Novosibirsk, and Kozelsk. In Kozelsk the missiles will be deployed in silos. To make room for Yars, the Rocket Forces has been removing old UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 missiles and began modernization of the silos.

As it turned out, the silo conversion is a serious affair - judging by the photos released by Spetsstroy (thanks to AS), it involves some steel (and probably concrete) work. I must admit I thought that the conversion will be minimal and would involve deployment of new missiles (in launch containers) in the silos - as I understand, something like that was done when RT-23UTTH/SS-24 missiles were deployed in the same UR-100NUTTH silos.