RS - 24 Yars The RS - 24 Yars also known as RT - 24 Yars ( NATO reporting name : SS - 29 ) is a Russia n MIRV - equipped , thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missile first tested on May 29 , 2007 after a secret military R & D project , to replace the older R - 36 and UR - 100N that have been in use for nearly 50 years . RS - 24 is a missile that is heavier than the current Topol - M ( which can carry up to 10 independently targetable warheads ) . The 2007 tests were publicized as a response to the missile shield that the United States were planning to deploy in Europe . RS - 24 has been deployed operationally since 2010 . Testing . Purported by the Russian government as being designed to defeat present and potential anti - missile system s , the ICBM was first tested by a launch from a mobile launcher at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northwestern Russia at 11 : 20 GMT , May 29 , 2007 and its test warheads landed on target about away at the Kura Test Range in Far Eastern Kamchatka Peninsula . The second launch from Plesetsk to the Kura Test Range was conducted on December 25 , 2007 at 13 : 10 GMT . It successfully reached its destination . The third successful launch from the Plesetsk space center in northwest Russia was conducted on November 26 , 2008 at 13 : 20 GMT . The missile ' s multiple re - entry vehicles successfully landed on targets on the Kura testing range . Neither the development nor deployment of RS - 24 is likely to be threatened by the enforcement of the New START treaty . Deployment . In June 2008 the chief designer of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology , Yuri Solomonov , announced that the RS - 24 is an enhanced , MIRV ed development of the Topol - M missile that would finish all testing in 2008 and most likely be deployed in 2009 . According to General Nikolai Solovtsov , the commander of the Strategic Rocket Forces ( SRF ) , the first RS - 24 missiles will be deployed in Teykovo in 2009 . On March 17 , 2009 General Solovtsov announced that the first regiment of RS - 24 ICBMs will be put into service in December 2009 when START - 1 is set to expire . He later repeated that statement on May 7 . According to the Russian rocket forces the first six RS - 24 missiles will be mobile . Further on October 10 , 2009 , on ITAR - TASS , General Andrei Shvaichenko , the new SRF commander , confirmed the December 2009 deployment of the RS - 24 which will support the existing Topol - M ( RS - 12М2 ) missile complex . Testing for the new - generation ICBM was completed in mid - July 2010 , and the first missiles were deployed shortly after on July 19 . In December 2010 the 54th Guards Rocket Division in Teykovo received its second delivery of RS - 24 missile systems . In total 6 missiles were deployed by the end of 2010 . 3 more mobile missile systems were deployed in July 2011 and then the first regiment was operational . In December 2011 first division of second regiment with 3 missiles was put on combat duty and second division will be deployed by 2011 year end . On 16 August 2012 it was reported that a second regiment of the 54th Guards Rocket Division in Teikovo , central Russia will be fully equipped with Yars mobile ballistic missile systems in 2012 , said Strategic Missile Forces ( SMF ) spokesman Col . Vadim Koval . Russia fully deployed the first Yars regiment consisting of three battalions in August 2011 , and put two battalions of the second regiment on combat duty on December 27 , 2011 . The deployment of the third battalion of the second regiment completed the rearming of the Teikovo division with Yars systems . The two regiments consist of a total of 18 missile systems and several mobile command posts . Two more missile divisions will start receiving the Yars systems in 2013 . The 39th Guards Rocket Division , at Novosibirsk in Siberia , will receive mobile Yars systems , while the 28th Guards Rocket Division at Kozelsk ( in central Russia ) will be armed with the silo - based version of the system . The Strategic Missile Troops said that the Topol - M and RS - 24 ballistic missiles would be the mainstay of the ground - based component of Russia ' s nuclear triad and would account for no less than 80 % of the SMF ' s arsenal by 2016 .