Article Posted on : - Dec 26, 2008

A file photo fo Topol M. BNS archives

MOSCOW (BNS): A multi-faceted Topol-M (SS-27 Stalin) Inter Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) entered service with the Teikovo missile unit regiment in central Russia on Wednesday, according to an announcement made by Strategic Missile Forces spokesman.

Russia news agency RIA Novosti quoting the SMF spokesman as saying that the sophisticated Topol-M road-mobile missile system, which "has no match in the world, had been put on combat duty" at the Teikovo missile unit in the Ivanovo region.

The agency said that the first two missile battalions were armed with six Topol-M systems at the 54th Strategic Missile Division near the town of Teikovo, about 150 miles (240 km) northeast of Moscow.

Giving details about the Topol-M missiles, the agency said that they are the mainstay of the ground-based component of Russia's nuclear triad. As of 2008, the SMF operated 48 silo-based and six road-mobile Topol-M missile systems. The missile, with a range of about 7,000 miles (11,000 km), is reportedly impervious to any current or future
US missile defences, the agency reported.

It is shielded against radiation, electro-magnetic attack, and nuclear blast, and is also designed to survive impact from any known weaponised laser system.