The Russian military used *15 Tochka-U (SS-21)* short-range ballistic missiles as well as *”a few” Iskander (SS-26)* short-range theater ballistic missiles in the campaign against Georgia, the guys at the Moscow-based Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies (CAST) argue in “this article”:http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/item3/article1/.

As you may recall, I first brought up the issue of what missiles were used by the Russians in “this post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1678/georgians-say-russians-used-iskander. Subsequently, ACW had quite an informative, but a somewhat inconclusive discussion about it “here”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1998/did-russia-fire-ss-26s-at-georgia and “here”:http://www.armscontrolwonk.com/1999/more-ss-sumthin-pics.

I’ve asked the guys at CAST about their level of certainty. They told me that the use of both systems is “*a fact*,” notwithstanding the denials of the Russian Ministry of Defense regarding the use of both the “SS-21”:http://www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=49571 and the “SS-26”:http://www.mil.ru/info/1069/details/index.shtml?id=49537.

So there you have it. Make of it what you wish.

By the way, the most recent issue of CAST’s “*_Moscow Defense Brief_*”:http://mdb.cast.ru/mdb/3-2008/, which is titled “The Empire Strikes Back” and deals with — _guess what?_ — the conflict with Georgia, is worth a read.