¡¡¡¡MOSCOW, February 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Russia has built four more silos for new-style Topol-M strategic missiles this year at the army base Tatishchevo in the southern Saratov region, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Kosovan said Thursday.

¡¡¡¡"Four silos have been prepared, two more are in order," Kosovansaid, adding that eight silos will be built if the Defense Ministry purchases six Topol missiles.

¡¡¡¡"We will reach the objective -- fully and ahead of schedule -- to put on combat duty the manufactured missiles," Kosovan emphasized.

¡¡¡¡In 2001, military construction workers prepared silos for six Topol-M systems, which then were put on combat duty.

¡¡¡¡Earlier this year, a Defense Ministry official said Russia was planning to put on combat duty six more intercontinental ballisticmissiles of this type in 2002.

¡¡¡¡Topol-M missile was successfully tested first in December 1994.The Russian rocket troops' first regiment equipped with 10 such missiles were put on combat duty four years later. The missiles ofthis type will become the Russian strategic rocket troops' main guns from 2007.

¡¡¡¡The Russian military claimed that no anti-missile weapon can effectively interrupt Topol-M in a long time from now, and is deploying such missiles as a measure against the U.S. national missile defense scheme after the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile treaty was abandoned. Enditem

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