31st Rocket Army is one of the three rocket armies within Russia

Russia

Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n Strategic Rocket Forces

Strategic Rocket Forces

The Strategic Missile Troops or Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or RVSN RF , transliteration: Raketnye voyska strategicheskogo naznacheniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii, literally Missile Troops of Strategic Designation of the Russian Federation) are a military branch of the Russian...

 headquartered in Orenburg

Orenburg

Orenburg is a city on the Ural River and the administrative center of Orenburg Oblast, Russia. It lies southeast of Moscow, very close to the border with Kazakhstan. Population: 546,987 ; 549,361 ; Highest point: 154.4 m...

.

The 31st Rocket Army was formed on June 8, 1970 on the base of the 18th Separate Rocket Corps.

The 31st Army is equipped with R-36M and RT-2PM Topol intercontinental ballistic missile

Intercontinental ballistic missile

An intercontinental ballistic missile is a ballistic missile with a long range typically designed for nuclear weapons delivery...

s.

Commanders

• June 27, 1970-June 5, 1979: Colonel General Ivan A. Shvetsov
• June 5, 1979-November 8, 1985: Colonel General V.I.Gerasimov
• November 8, 1985-August 17, 1988: Major General N.M.Chichevatov
• August 17, 1988-November 2, 1993: Major General I.V.Pustovoy
• November 4, 1993-2003: Major General A.S.Borzenkov
• 2003-2007: Lieutenant General Yuri Kononov
• Since October 12, 2007: Major General Ivan F. Reva

Composition

From 1970, a number of rocket divisions have been under the army's control: the 8th Rocket Division, 13, 14, (41), 42, 50, 52, (55), 59th. One of these previously active divisions was the 52nd Rocket Division (RT-23UTTKh

RT-23 Molodets

The RT-23 was a Soviet ICBM developed and produced by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau before 1991. It is cold launched, and comes in silo and railway car based variants...

, SS-24 Scalpel) at Bershet, Perm Oblast

Perm Oblast

Until December 1, 2005, Perm Oblast was a federal subject of Russia in Privolzhsky Federal District. According to the results of the referendum held in October 2004, Perm Oblast was merged with Komi-Permyak Autonomous Okrug to form Perm Krai.The oblast was named after its administrative center,...

. It joined the 31st Army in 1970 and was disbanded in 2002:

PERM, Eastern European Russia. Feb 22 (Interfax-AVN) - The disbandment of units of the Ternopil-Berlin missile division headquartered in the Perm region started on Friday in accordance with the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) reform program, a spokesman for the division headquarters told Interfax-Military News Agency. One of four regiments of the division stopped accomplishing combat duties and the first section of the railway missile system was sent for scrapping. The division was established 40 years ago and has been awarded Orders of Bohdan Khmelnytskyy and Red Star. Ever since its establishment the division would get the most latest missile systems, and in 1988 it started to commission railway missile systems which are practically impossible to track even from satellites. "In spite of the fact that the unit's disbandment is a decided matter, many of us doubt if the decision is timely," division commander Major General Boris Sinenko said" (Agentstvo Voyennykh Novostey, 22 Feb 2002).

There are two rocket divisions that are under command of the 27th Army:

• 13th Red Banner Rocket Division at Dombarovsky
  Dombarovsky
  Dombarovsky is an interceptor aircraft base in Orenburg Oblast, Russia located 6 km northwest of the village of Dombarovsky, near Yasny...
  
  , Orenburg Oblast
  Orenburg Oblast
  Orenburg Oblast is a federal subject of Russia . Its administrative center is the city of Orenburg. From 1938 to 1957, it bore the name Chkalov Oblast in honor of Valery Chkalov...
  
  
• 42nd Rocket Division - at the Urban-type settlement
  Urban-type settlement
  Urban-type settlement ; , selyshche mis'koho typu ) is an official designation for a type of locality used in some of the countries of the former Soviet Union...
  
   of Svobodny, Sverdlovsk Oblast  with 36 mobile RT-2PM Topol (Svobodny is 35 км from Nizhniy Tagil и в 15 км от Verkhnyaya Salda
  Verkhnyaya Salda
  Verkhnyaya Salda is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Salda River , north of Yekaterinburg. Population: It was founded in 1778; town status was granted to it in 1938....
  
  ).

External links

• http://www.ww2.dk/new/rvsn/31ma.htm - 31st Rocket Army
• http://russiandefpolicy.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/new-31st-missile-army-commander/ - new commander