Big changes are coming to the 29th Guards Missile Division in Irkutsk. Right now the division includes three SS-25/Topol regiments, all of which appear to be operational. However, by the end of 2016, the division is expected to receive its first regiment of RS-24 Yars missiles. Moreover, the plan is to increase the number of regiments back to four - two will operate RS-24 Yars and two - RS-26 Rubezh.
Deployment of RS-26 Rubezh in Irkutsk has been expected for some time now - the initial plan was to begin deployment in 2015, but then the date was changed to 2016. Given that the recent reports don't mention RS-26 in 2016, it is quite possible that the deployment of first missiles of this type has been moved even further "to the right" - at least to 2017. The missile was said to be fully tested and ready for deployment more than a year ago. But maybe not quite - a test launch of RS-26 is scheduled for the second quarter of the year 2016.
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Hi Pavel!
If you look to the latest images on google and Terraserver you will find only two sites with garages intact:
52.552325° 104.159622° and 52.669400° 104.520916°.
The other two sites have their garages already removed (but still no construction work)
52.570345° 104.808707° and 52.508810° 104.392554°.
This means we would have only two Rgts of Topol rigth now
Cheers
Yes, you are probably right - there are only two operational regiments. It's just that the recent exercise story mentioned 20 missiles - that's more than two.