Nuclear threat: Russia announces exercises with Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles

OLENA ROSHCHINA – WEDNESDAY, 1 JUNE 2022, 10:20

Russian Strategic Missile Forces are taking part in exercises involving autonomous launchers of Yars [an abbreviation, in Russian, of ‘nuclear deterrence rocket’, a Russian thermonuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missile - ed.] strategic missile systems.

Source: Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, quoted by Interfax

Quote from the Russian Ministry of Defence: "In the Ivanovo Oblast, intensive manoeuvring exercises with autonomous launchers of the Yars mobile ground missile system of the Teykovo division [Teykovo is a town in Ivanovo Oblast of Russia where the 54th Guards Missile Division of the Strategic Rocket Forces is based] of the SMF [Strategic Missile Forces - ed.] are being carried out on combat patrol routes."

Details: The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced that 1,000 military personnel and over 100 pieces of equipment were taking part in the exercises.

"Strategic missile forces are practising taking the missile systems to their field positions, marching up to 100km, dispersing the [missile - ed.] systems while changing their field positions, performing combat engineering tasks, camouflaging the equipment, and combat defence," the Ministry said.

Background: Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) form part of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation; it is the main source of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. The main aim of the SMF is nuclear deterrence.

The SMF comprises modern Yars launch systems, which can be either mobile or stationary.

Yars missiles are capable of hitting targets at a range of up to 11,000 kilometres. Each missile is equipped with multiple independently targetable warheads.