Kostroma
57°45'N 40°55'E
The SS-17 was deployed at Kostroma and Vypolzovo [Yedrovo] prior to being withdrawn from service following the end of the Cold War.
Deployment of the railroad-based SS-24 Mod-1 (15Zh61) started on 28 November 1989, and the first regiment with railroad-based missiles was put on alert on 20 October 1987. Altogether 36 railway-based RT-23UTTh missiles were in three garrison areas: 12 launchers at Kostroma (400 km east of Moscow), 9 launchers at Bershet (1,250 km east of Moscow), and 12 launchers at Krasnoyarsk in Siberia. The Military Railroad Missile Complex (Boyevoy Zheleznyy Raketnyy Kompleks BZhRK) consists of three launch cars [each with a single missile], a command and control car, cars for personnel, and several diesel locomotives. By 1994 most of the rail-mobile systems remained in garrison due to lack of funding.
On 01 April 2005 the Strategic Missile Force of Russia, acting on the defense minister's orders, started liquidating two divisions in Kartaly, the Chelyabinsk region, and Kostroma. The number of missile divisions will be slashed from 15 to 10 by 2010 and the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) on combat duty will fall from 496 to 313. The number of warheads on the ICBMs will be reduced from 1,770 to 923.
The main reason for the ICBM cuts is old age, as some of the missiles were produced in Ukraine in the Soviet era. The collapse of the Soviet Union put an end to their production and the missile group's renewal process. Those missiles produced in Russia are growing old too. According to Lieutenant General Vitaly Linnik, deputy commander of the Strategic Missile Force for armaments, "the removal of ICBMs whose service life has expired from combat duty is proceeding according to plan and will not affect the combat readiness of the Force."
