Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) plans to increase its personnel by 8,500 in the coming six years, a military spokesman said Tuesday.

The increase was due to steady rearmament of the RVSN, which is due to be completed in 2025, with the new-generation intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), RVSN spokesman Dmitry Andreyev was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

In one regiment of Tagil division in the Ural Mountains alone in August, over 400 new positions were filled, he said, adding that "20 percent of them have been filled by officers, while the rest by the contractors."

Currently, five RVSN regiments have been receiving the new-generation ICBM Yars RS-24, an upgraded version of the to-be-replaced Topol-M.

The Yars will also replace RS-20 Voyevoda ground-based ICBMs, or Satan in NATO classification, which have been on active duty since late 1980s.

Fifteen Yars mobile missile systems have been deployed at divisions in Novosibirsk and Tomsk in Siberia.

Russia said earlier that 16 launches of the ICBMs will be conducted in 2014 for various training, testing and commercial tasks.

Last week, the Russian Air Force also said it will significantly upgrade and reinforce its fleet, with over 200 modernized fighter jets and helicopters to be put into service in 2014. Endi

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