From the Jamestown Foundation: https://jamestown.org/program/russia...es-iskander-m/

Publication: Eurasia Daily Monitor Volume: 14 Issue: 82
By: Roger McDermott
June 20, 2017 09:39 PM Age: 14 hours

Introduction:

As Russia’s Armed Forces await the details and specific implications of the new State Armaments Program to 2025 (Gosudarstvennaya Programma Vooruzheniya—GPV), there is widespread expectation that the military will receive more high-precision strike systems to complement its efforts to develop greater operational capabilities (Utro.ru, June 15; see EDM, June 14). Among these, the Iskander-M road-mobile theater ballistic missile system raises serious concerns for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), not least due to its deployment in Kaliningrad and the fact that it is capable of carrying either a conventional or a nuclear warhead. Presently, the Russian defense ministry intends to build enough additional Iskander-Ms to entirely replace the older Tochka-U system by 2020. However, given the further expansion of the Missile Troops (see below), it is likely that more systems will enter service beyond 2020 (RIA Novosti, June 9).
Highlights:

  • Officially there are 10 Missile and Artillery Troop Brigades (RV&A), with another being formed: 4 in the Western MD, 1 in the Southern MD, 2 in the Central MD and 3 in the MEastern MD
  • The RV&A commander notes that there is a trend toward improving Russia’s precision-strike capabilities and that the Iskander-M is a crucial part of this strategy
  • By 2020, all 10 RV&A brigades should be equipped with the Iskander-M, fully replacing the old Tochka-U
  • Iskander-Ms were recently deployed to Tajikistan, and although they may feature in Zapad 2017, Moscow is not planning to sell any to Belarus