Two divisions of the Orenburg Missile Army have started snap combat readiness drills in Russia's Urals region, the Defense Ministry said.

"The goal of this snap check is to assess the ability of missile units to go on high-alert in required time and to evaluate their readiness to perform the designated tasks," Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov said on Monday.

The drills involving the Tagil and the Yasnenskaya Missile Divisions stationed in the Urals will continue until July 27. The exercises include combat patrols and redeployment of missile units in designated field training areas.

The Tagil missile division is armed with Topol (SS-25 Sickle by NATO classification) intercontinental ballistic missiles. The Yasnenskaya division uses RS-20V Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) ballistic missile systems.

Snap drills have become a practice of readiness checks in the Russian Armed Forces this year. The Defense Ministry last week conducted the largest snap check of combat readiness in the post-Soviet period.

Those drills involved some 160,000 servicemen, about 1,000 tanks and armored vehicles, 130 aircraft and 70 warships from the Far East and Central military districts.