Moscow: Russia has dismantled six outdated Topol mobile ballistic missile systems under an international treaty on strategic arms reduction, the Strategic Missile Forces said in a statement Thursday.

"We have scrapped six outdated Topol mobile systems. This is the second such procedure conducted this year," the statement said.

The first batch of six Topol systems was scrapped between March 17 and 26, 2008. All the systems were based in the Udmurt republic in the eastern Urals.

Topol (SS-25 Sickle) is a single-warhead Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM). The first Topol missile became operational in 1985, and at the time the START-I Treaty was signed, the erstwhile Soviet Union had deployed some 290 Topol ICBMs.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-I) was signed by the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union July 31, 1991, five months before the Union collapsed, and remains in the forces of US, Russia, and three other ex-Soviet states.

The Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have disposed of their nuclear weapons or transferred them to Russia, and both the US and Russia have reduced the number of delivery vehicles to 1,600, with no more than 6,000 warheads. The treaty is set to expire December 5, 2009.

 

Source : IANS