The Strategic Rocket Forces continue the tradition of conducting about half of the launches they say they plan to conduct. According to the last year statement, the 2017 plan included "more than ten" missile launches. The actual number is six - in a traditional end of the year interview, Sergey Karakayev said the his service had conducted five launches and planning to have one more by the end of the year. That last launch - Topol from Kapustin Yar - has just taken place, apparently concluding the 2017 launch program.

The 2017 launches were supposed to include "development" launches, life extension, and combat training. Indeed, there was a bit of everything. The first launch was that of a silo-based Topol-M from Plesetsk in January 2017. A launch of silo-based Yars from Plesetsk to Kura on September 12, 2017 was used to test "parallel deployment of warheads." There were two more launches in September -- a training launch of road-mobile Yars from Plesetsk on 20 September 2017 and a Topol launch from Kapustin Yar to Sary Shagan on 26 September 2017. A month later, on 26 October 2017 a Topol missile was launched from Plesetsk during an annual exercise of strategic forces.

In the interview, Karakayev promised 12 launches in 2018. It's a safe bet the actual number will be closer to six.