Russia installs huge Yars ICBM to send clear signal to the West

The installation of the Yars intercontinental ballistic missile into a silo launcher in the Kozelsky missile formation (the Kaluga region in western Russia) was a signal that Russia is sending to the West, British publication The Daily Mail wrote.

"Division commander Col. Alexei Sokolov made clear the exercise was aimed at sending a message to the West, with both the UK and US within range," the article says.

The Yars ICBM was loaded into the silo launcher at the Kozelsky missile formation of the Strategic Missile Forces to "solve the assigned task." It took several hours to conduct the operation.

On December 15, the Russian Ministry of Defence showed a video of the Yars ICBM being installed into the silo. The two-minute video shows a vehicle taking the huge missile to the military facility. The multiple-wheeler then rises vertically on hydraulic stops, and the rocket descends into the silo.

• The RS-24 Yars strategic missile system with a solid-propellant ICBM is a modification of the Topol-M missile system.
• The RS-24 missile has new technology to overcome missile defence.
• The Yars has a range of 12,000 kilometres and is capable of developing the speed ten times the speed of sound.

US-based publication 19FortyFive put the Yars on the list of five types of weapons that are suitable for Russia's war against the United States. The RS-24 missile, which can be set ready in seven minutes, is capable of carrying from three to six multiple warheads with individual targeting units.