The fist two Avangard systems officially began combat duty at 10:00 MSK on December 27, 2019. The two silos used to deploy these missiles are at 51.1925 59.635278 and 51.151034 59.597282 - satellite images taken on 3 December 2019 show exactly the activity one would expect to see at a site where a missile is loaded into a silo.
About a month earlier, Russia showed the missile to U.S. inspectors during a New START demonstration. It is not entirely clear what the inspectors could see, but at the very least they saw the shroud that covers the actual glider. The NK forum has a photo of the process of installing the payload on a missile (it may not be Avangard, but it's quite close) - this is probably what was shown to U.S. inspectors.
It's been a long road for the glider - the program began more than 30 years ago, in the late 1980s. It was known as Albatros at the time. The first flight test of the system took place in February 1990 (although it was certainly an early development prototype). The program was revived in the early 2000s and made the first public appearance in February 2004. I actually have a blog entry that described that test. The first signs of something is afoot at Dombarovskiy appeared around 2013 - at the time the program was known as Project 4202.
Avangard didn't have a very smooth ride as the project was almost cancelled at some point and the number of successful tests is not particularly impressive (I counted three). But this is all in the past now and the first two missiles are now operational. The plan is to deploy twelve systems of this type at Dombarovskiy by 2027.
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Comments
Pavel,
Has there been any additional information on the Avangard warhead yield beyond the quoted 2MT quoted in TASS? An odd number as I am assuming the warhead itself would not be of a new design in the absence of testing but rather an old one. I can't think of any deployed devices that were in this size range over the last 40 years. The only one I know of is the ~2 MT warhead from the R-9/SS-8 which has not been deployed since the 70's. Any thoughts?
I wouldn't trust TASS information. They could have just made up the number.
Pavel, both silos are in the compound of the former 621 msl RGT - would you expect that this unit was reactivated to become the first Avangard unit?
There is also some construction activity at these two sites - 51.06981, 59.483955 and 51.153333, 59.524722. Looks like Avangard. I guess this regiment will end up having six Avangards.