A missile brigade from the Siberian military district will test fire two SS-21 Scarab short-range ballistic missiles during Nov. 13-17 exercise at a test site in south Russia, a Ground Forces spokesman said Thursday. The SS-21, or Tochka, is a road-mobile single-warhead ballistic missile designed for tactical deployment. It has been in service with missile units of the Russian Ground Forces since 1976 and has a range of 70 km (45 miles).

"The missile units will conduct missile firing practices [at the Kapustin Yar testing site in the Astrakhan Region] and will test launch two Tochka tactical missiles," Colonel Igor Konashenkov said.

The spokesman said the Ground Forces have conducted a total of 12 successful test launches of Tochka missiles since the beginning of this year.

He also said that the Tochka (SS-21 Scarab A) and Tochka-U (SS-21 Scarab B) missiles would be gradually replaced with new Iskander-M (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) theater missiles, capable of carrying multiple warheads.

earlier related report

Russia Set To Launch 5 Ballistic Missiles By Yearend

Vlasikha (RIA Novosti) Oct 29 – Russia's Strategic Missile Forces will conduct five launches of intercontinental ballistic missiles by the end of 2007, the SMF commander said Friday.

"By the end of this year, we will test launch another five missiles, including a RS-18 (SS-19 Stiletto), a RS-12M (SS-25 Sickle), a missile interceptor and a heavy RS-20 (SS-18 Satan)," Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov told a news conference.

He said that seven ICBM launches had been conducted so far in 2007 to test the performance of a new RS-24 missile with multiple warheads, extend the service life of RS-18 and RS-25 missiles and lift payloads into orbit.

He also said five regiments of an SMF division in the Saratov Region have been equipped with silo-based Topol-M (SS-27) systems and put on combat duty. A complete regiment of silo-based Topol-M comprises ten missiles.

The advanced Topol-M missile is considered by many experts as the best ICBM in the world at present.

"Therefore, Russia already possesses weapons that can penetrate any modern missile defenses," Solovtsov said.

The deployment of silo-based Topol-M systems in the Saratov Region and road-mobile systems in the Ivanovo Region (central Russia) would be completed in 2010.

Source: RIA Novosti