Russian Central Military District will be reinforced with two battalions of Iskander-M mobile short-range ballistic missile systems this year. The Iskander-M tactical missile system is designated to strike adversary low-sized and site targets to a range of up to 500 km: missile launchers, multiple launch rocket systems, long-range artillery, aircraft and helicopters at aerodromes, command posts and communications centers. Overall, the Central Military District will receive over 1,300 items of armament and military hardware in 2022, which will make it possible to complete the rearmament of two surface-to-air missile regiments and seven units with advanced weapons.
The 9K720 Iskander (NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a mobile short-range ballistic missile system produced and deployed by the Russian military. The missile systems are to replace the obsolete OTR-21 Tochka systems, still in use by the Russian armed forces, by 2020. The missile was first combat-tested in 2008 during the Russo-Georgian War, when several conventionally-equipped Iskander-Ms were used by the Russian Army to strike targets in Gori, Georgia. By 2016, the Russian Defense Ministry plans to buy up to 120 Iskander-Ms and distribute them amongst five missile brigades.
The Iskander has several different conventional warheads, including a cluster munitions warhead, a fuel-air explosive enhanced-blast warhead, a high explosive-fragmentation warhead, an earth penetrator for bunker busting and an electromagnetic pulse device for anti-radar missions. The missile can also carry nuclear warheads. Variant for the Russian Armed Forces with two 9M723 quasi-ballistic missiles with published range 415 km, rumoured 500 km. Speed Mach 6–7, flight altitude up to 6–50 km. Immediately after the launch and upon approach to the target, the missile performs intensive maneuvering to evade anti-ballistic missiles.
The Central Military District is a military district of Russia. It is one of the five military districts of the Russian Armed Forces, with its jurisdiction primarily within the central Volga, Ural and Siberia regions of the country and Russian bases in Central Asian post-Soviet states. The Central Military District was created as part of the 2008 military reforms, and founded by Presidential Decree No.1144 signed on September 20, 2010, as an amalgamation of the Volga–Urals Military District and a majority of the Siberian Military District. The Central Military District is the largest military district in Russia by geographic size at 7,060,000 square km.
