MOSCOW -- The Russian defense industry will begin developing a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in the mid-2020s.
Speaking to state-owned media outlet TASS Russian News Agency on April 2, a source in the defense industry described Russia's plans for the Kedr ICBM, which are to eventually replace the Yars. The source said, "Research work on Kedr has been financed under the current state arms procurement program, which is in effect until 2027. Technological development will begin in 2023-2024."
According to the source, Russia expects to begin introducing the system in 2030.
TASS noted that it did not receive an on-the-record comment from the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology, which was responsible for the development of the Topol, Topol-M, and Yars ICBMs. TASS reported last month that Russian defense firms had begun some initial design work on the Kedr.
Russian state-owned media outlets have previously reported that the development and introduction of a replacement for the Yars could take up to a decade. In July 2020, Vladimir Evseev, who formerly served with the Strategic Missile Forces, told RIA Novosti that it would take around 10 years to develop a missile, create and test prototypes, and then establish serial production.
Similar to Yars, the Kedr ICBMs will have both road-mobile and silo-based versions. Compared to Yars, the Kedr missile should have "higher maneuverability and resistibility to the enemy’s countermeasures and smaller size and mass," the president of the Union of Space Rocket Industry Employers, Sergei Ponomaryov, said in September 2018.
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