MOSCOW, January 8 (RIA Novosti) - The share of contract soldiers in Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) will be more than doubled by 2017, an SMF spokesman said on Tuesday.

Between 2013 and 2017 their proportion will increase from 25 percent to 60 percent, Capt. Sergei Shorin said.

He did not provide any absolute figures, only saying that in the last three months of 2012 about 400 candidates were given preliminary approval for contract service in the SMF.

A total of 66 recruitment offices have been set up throughout the country, he added.