The topic of creating a new generation of rocket trains is closed, at least for the short term. This was announced by an informed representative of the military-industrial complex of Russia.
Recall the chronology of the beginning and end of the service of the Soviet strategic BZHRK "Molodets", or "Scalpel", according to Western classification, as well as the unfinished biography of the Russian "Barguzin".
The order "On the creation of a mobile combat railway missile system (BZHRK) with the RT-23 missile" was signed on January 13, 1969. Design Bureau Yuzhnoye, located in Dnepropetrovsk, was appointed the lead developer. All railway missile system called the RT-23 UTTH and gave the name "Good job". The first regiment of rocket trains went on combat duty in October 1987. By the beginning of 1991, three BZHRK missile divisions were deployed. In the United States, after conducting a lot of "spy" studies, they were convinced that they were not able to confidently track the movement of such trains, despite a number of unmasking factors, and guaranteed to destroy them.
And even before the collapse of the USSR, at the insistence of the West, the BZHRK began to carry out combat duty only at points of permanent deployment, without leaving the country's railway network. That is, their main advantage - mobility and stealth have been reset to zero.
In January 1993, Boris Yeltsin and George W. Bush (senior) signed the START-2 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. According to its terms, Russia was to decommission and eliminate all of its BZHRK - a total of 12 trains with 36 launchers. In early May 2005, the then commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, officially announced that the BZHRK had been removed from combat duty in the Strategic Missile Forces. By 2007, all trains and launchers were disposed of. There are two museum exhibits completely demilitarized.
Thus ended the life of the strategic Molodtsov.
However, in April 2013, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said that the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering was starting development work on a new generation of railway missile systems.
In 2014, the command of the Strategic Missile Forces, as reported in the media, publicly confirmed that the BZHRK would be revived.
And finally, at the end of last year, it was announced that successful throw tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile for the Russian BZHRK "Barguzin" had passed. The launch was carried out by a mass-dimensional model of the Yars rocket, adapted to the railway complex.
And at the end of 2017, it turned out that the Barguzin was going into a long stalemate on sidings, without becoming a full-fledged combat railway complex. Although it has not been officially announced yet. And the point is, most likely, in finances - for all of them now there is not enough.
Here is what retired colonel-general Anatoly Sitnov says about this. It was he who was directly related to the preservation of the country's defense power in the troubled nineties. With his participation, the Iskander, Topol-M and missile systems were created. It is difficult to find a more reputable specialist.
According to A.P. Sitnova, Russia today has quite sufficient nuclear and missile power to inflict a crushing retaliatory strike on any aggressor. Moreover, the strategic nuclear forces have been significantly updated in recent years. The Navy is commissioning a new generation of submarine missile carriers equipped with Bulava missiles. The Strategic Missile Forces replaced the outdated Topoli with the latest ones, and puts even more modern Yars on alert. The Air Force is testing cruise missiles with a strategic range. Therefore, it is simply unreasonable to start creating another very expensive nuclear missile system now.
Nevertheless, Sitnov noted, development work on the Barguzin has been carried out. The jump launch experiment was a success. If urgently needed, our rocket train will be quickly brought to working condition and put on rails.
"Nuclear train" - a military railway missile system - a favorite horror story in conversations about strategic weapons, is perhaps second only to the legendary "neutron bomb". Recently Russian citizens announced the refusal to launch the newest BZHRK "Barguzin" into the series. We think - is it really needed?
On a black-black night, a black-black train rushes across a snowy-snowy field and carries nuclear-nuclear missiles. Approximately this is how the work of the combat railway missile system (BZHRK) seems to the townsfolk. Indistinguishable from simple trains, it secretly runs through the vast expanses of our country. Inside, stern and wary military men sit, drink tea from glasses with cup holders and think about the fate of the Motherland, ready to launch missiles with a nuclear warhead at any moment.
Recently it became known that the development of the new generation BZHRK "Barguzin" was discontinued at the design stage. And this is not as bad as it might seem at once, and certainly does not imply serious holes in the nuclear shield of our country. The thing is that the train with nuclear missiles was an ideal weapon only in terms of intimidating the townsfolk. On the practical side, there were a lot of questions about this miracle of technology. Let's start from the beginning: in the previous approach to the topic, 12 trains were formed, each of which carried three missiles, for a total of 36. Compared to the total Soviet arsenal, this was a drop in the bucket.
Combat railway missile systems RT-23 "Molodets" have been on combat duty since 1987. In 2003–2007, they were disposed of under the START-2 treaty, but two demilitarized launchers have been preserved as museums.
In general, the main task of any mobile carrier is to quietly get to the optimal launch point, shoot back and try to escape alive on top speed. Submarines and missile-carrying aircraft, which are more suitable for all sorts of cunning plans, with launches from unexpected places and along a non-standard trajectory, can “drive up” closest to the enemy.
Mobile complexes on wheels will cope with this worse, but they can move like cockroaches - it is easy to change direction and scatter after striking in different directions. The train, as Andrey Makarevich rightly noted, "will pass only where the track has been laid."
now let's look at the map railways our country. It is possible to effectively hide a train from the all-seeing eyes of satellites only in the European part of Russia, where there is an extensive network of railways. Driving him along the Trans-Siberian is fun, but stupid. But even in the European part of the BZHRK will not feel at ease: in recent years, the average daily speed of transport trains has significantly decreased due to the need to often stop and wait for passenger trains and is - ta-damm! - nine kilometers per hour! That is, even if the spy satellite shoots "Barguzin" once a day, it will not go further than 200 kilometers from the last photo.
Now a little about the notorious stealth. The network has memories of "hardened" railway workers who were unable to distinguish the Soviet BZHRK "Molodets" from an ordinary train. To be honest, I don't really believe it. Three locomotives, followed by three passenger cars, four mail cars, and then refrigerated cars with not four, but eight axles. Do you often see such trains? In general, a mix of passenger and refrigerator cars is already a very rare occurrence on the railroad. It was assumed that the new "Barguzins" would use conventional four-axle cars, but this would not greatly improve the situation, although, of course, they would not stand out as radically as the "Molodtsy" with their mass redistribution systems to neighboring cars.
Believe me, all employees from the control room to the depot will know that a "nuclear train" has arrived. And in the era of mobile phones, Instagram and ubiquitous geolocation, this will turn into an exciting game of searching the hashtag #nucleartrain and #barguzin on the network. A photo against the background of a train with rockets is wonderful. What can we say about modern digital systems accounting for wagons capable of setting fire to such trains at the moment they enter the line. As a result, we have a very interesting, technically complex and expensive project of dubious utility. Again, as a scary bedtime story, the nuclear train is perfect. He stops in an open field, special retractable devices rise from the power station car. They short-circuit the contact network, sparks and lightning fly in all directions, all electric trains stop over the next kilometers. Then the wires are pulled to the sides, the rockets rise and are thrown out of the launcher to a low altitude, the main engines turn on, and now the gifts are already flying towards the peacefully sleeping Oklahoma region. If you see this in a dream, you will wake up in a cold sweat.
From the point of view of practical implementation, everything is very expensive, difficult and again expensive. The system has passed the throw tests, which means that, in case of strict necessity, it can be quickly brought to practical implementation. In the meantime, our train will "stand on the siding", and that's okay. For those who want to shed tears for "we are in Soviet times uuuu”, I recommend visiting the St. Petersburg Museum of Railway Engineering near the Baltic Station. BZHRK "Well done" is there - you can get nostalgic.
A huge resonance in the professional environment was caused by the news about the freezing of the project of the combat railway missile system (BZHRK) "Barguzin", better known as a nuclear train. Information about this with reference to "an informed representative of the military-industrial complex" was distributed by " Russian newspaper”, the official publication of the government of the Russian Federation.
At the time of preparation of the material, the Ministry of Defense did not comment on the situation. Given the reputation of the WG, it is safe to say that the development of the Barguzin has indeed been suspended. However, it is not clear why they decided to talk about it so delicately at the top, refraining from publicly explaining the reasons, which, probably, there is no point in hiding.
"The topic of creating a new generation of rocket trains is closed, at least for the short term," Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported. At the same time, it is indicated that “if it is urgently needed, our rocket train will be quickly brought to working condition and put on rails.” The reasons for the suspension of the project "Barguzin" understood the "Russian Planet".
Forced disposal
For the first time, the Ministry of Defense announced the progress of work on the creation of a new strategic BZHRK in April 2013. On December 24, 2014, Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov emphasized that the adoption of a railway missile system in the Russian Federation does not contradict the provisions of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-3).
The development of "Barguzin" began at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT), presumably in 2011-2012. In 2014, a sketch was prepared, and in 2015, development work (R&D) started. In December 2015, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN), Colonel General Sergei Karakaev, spoke about the current "development of working design documentation for the units and systems of the complex."
In November 2016, at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, throw tests of an intercontinental ballistic missile for the new BZHRK were successfully completed. The tests consisted in the fact that the weight model of the future rocket was "thrown" out of the car with the help of a powder accumulator. The deployment of the nuclear train was planned for the period between 2018-2020.
"Barguzin" is a deep modernization of the Soviet analogue of the RT-23 UTTH "Molodets" (SS-24 Scalpel - according to NATO classification). The first missile regiment took up combat duty on October 20, 1987 in Kostroma. According to the Ministry of Defense, the main advantage of the Soviet BZHRK was the ability to disperse. Unnoticed by reconnaissance means, the complex could change its location.
“BZHRK structurally was a train of two or three diesel locomotives and special (according to appearance refrigerated and passenger) cars, which housed transport and launch containers (TLC) with intercontinental ballistic missiles, launch control points, technological and technical systems, means of protection, personnel and life support systems, ”the Ministry of Defense explains.
"Molodets" was adopted during the end of the Cold War. By 1994, Russia had 12 BZHRK with three missiles each. Three missile divisions were deployed in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kostroma and Perm regions.
In 1993, Moscow and Washington signed the START II Treaty, according to which our country undertook to decommission nuclear trains. In 2002, in response to the US withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty, Russia denounced START II. However, she decided to dispose of "Molodtsov". Only two trains remained intact: one complex adorns the Varshavsky railway station in St. Petersburg, and the second - the AvtoVAZ Technical Museum in Togliatti.
Unsuccessful attempt
The reasons for the decommissioning of Molodtsov largely echo the situation around the Barguzin project. The operating experience of the BZHRK revealed a number of shortcomings that are critical in peacetime. We are talking about the high cost and unresolved technical problems.
The Ministry of Defense assumed that the nuclear-powered train would be able to move throughout the entire railway network of the USSR. No doubt this would be a gigantic advantage. It was for this purpose that a new means of delivering atomic weapons was created. However, the nuclear train turned out to be too heavy, and the usual railway track could not withstand it. Only one rocket weighed over 100 tons, and there were three of them on each BZHRK.
It is known that within a radius of 1.5 thousand kilometers from the places of deployment of Molodtsov, the railway track was strengthened. Wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete, ordinary rails were replaced with heavy ones, and the embankment was made of denser gravel. It is obvious that the relocation of all railway lines for the needs of the BZHRK is a senseless process from a military and economic point of view, which will require gigantic costs and an incredible amount of time.
Thus, MIT was faced with the task of developing a lighter and more maneuverable nuclear train. It follows from the comments of experts that the ICBM for the Barguzin was created on the basis of the RS-24 Yars and was supposed to weigh less than 50 tons. Only in this case, the operation of the BZHRK would be justified. It is possible that MIT could have had difficulties with the creation of a lightweight rocket or the train itself.
Similar problems could arise due to the fact that "Molodets" was fully developed and assembled in the Ukrainian SSR. The developer of the RT-23 UTTH is the famous Dnepropetrovsk design bureau Yuzhnoye, and production was established in Pavlograd, located nearby.
The version of an unsuccessful attempt to create an endowed ICBM was indirectly confirmed on July 3, 2017 by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin. In particular, he stated that the industry is ready to produce a BZHRK and a 100-ton heavy ballistic missile if such a decision is made and nuclear trains are included in the State Arms Program (SAP) for 2018-2025.
In March 2017, the Zvezda TV channel claimed that the BZHRK was "preparing for the final stage of testing." And during 2017, the federal media repeatedly reported that the Barguzin should be included in the State Armaments Program for 2018-2027. However, the inclusion of a nuclear train with a 100-ton missile in the GPV, as mentioned above, simply does not make sense.
As reported by "Rossiyskaya Gazeta", at the end of this year, the prototype "Barguzin" went "into a long sludge on sidings." However, bury unique project not worth it. main reason failures - the lack of a lightweight version of the ICBM. Work in this direction probably required an increase in time and funding. The project is frozen, which means that Russia can always return to it if the situation so requires.
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Russia has stopped the creation of the Barguzin combat railway missile system, the development of which was announced only in July by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry. The Barguzin project was postponed in long box, reports "Russian newspaper". This has not been officially announced yet.
“The Barguzin project is at the level of absolute industry readiness for creation if the decision is made and included in the state armament program,” he said in an interview in the summer. RIA News" Rogozin, who is also the chairman of the Commission of the military-industrial complex.
At the same time it was reported that the BZHRK "Barguzin" is planned to be developed before 2018. The new BZHRK was supposed to significantly exceed the Soviet predecessor in accuracy, missile range and other characteristics. This would allow the train to be in service until at least 2040. Thus, it was reported that the Strategic Missile Forces were returning to a three-species grouping containing silo, mobile and rail-based complexes.
At the end of 2015, the Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces spoke about the completion preliminary design BZHRK and the beginning of the development of working design documentation for the units and systems of the complex. In turn, the chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces in 1994-1996, Colonel-General, in May 2016, announced that the timing of the creation of the Barguzin would be determined in the state armaments program for 2018-2025.
In November 2016, at the Plesetsk cosmodrome, successful throw tests of a rocket modification specifically for the BZHRK took place. It is known that one "Barguzin" was planned to be equated with a missile regiment, and the missile division of the Strategic Missile Forces should include five missile regiments - 30 launchers.
Throw tests are the first stage of testing any missiles. During these tests, it is checked, in particular, whether the algorithms for preparing the rocket for launch are correctly developed, how the rocket leaves the launcher and how the launch equipment works. In January of this year, the military-industrial complex explained that flight tests of the missile were scheduled for 2019.
The order "On the creation of a mobile BZHRK" with the RT-23 missile was signed on January 13, 1969. The complex was supposed to form the basis of a retaliatory strike grouping, since it had mobility and with a high probability could survive after the enemy delivered the first strike. The lead developer was Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, located in the city of Dnepropetrovsk (now the Dnieper).
The chief designers of the BZHRK were academicians brothers and outstanding creators of Soviet missile weapons. The BZHRK is a strategic rail-based mobile missile system, outwardly indistinguishable from an ordinary freight train. Fully equipped intercontinental ballistic missiles, command posts, technological and technical systems, communications equipment are installed in its cars, and the personnel of missile officers are accommodated.
In the event of a threat of nuclear war, the BZHRK, according to the plan, go out on patrol routes and merge with the flow of other trains.
If the command gives the order for combat use, the train stops and prepares to launch an attack. The shutters on the roofs of three cars move apart, and the mechanisms hidden inside bring the missile launch containers to a vertical position. Two minutes later, the complex is ready to launch three missiles, carrying a total of 30 individually targeted warheads with a capacity of 550 kilotons each. For comparison, the power of the Little Boy atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima was about 18 kilotons.
At the end of October, the press secretary of the President of Russia said that the head of state took a personal part in the training on the management of strategic nuclear forces. Peskov added that Putin launched four ballistic missiles. He also clarified that the test of the "nuclear triad" is ongoing process, which is carried out in strict accordance with international rules, and these exercises cannot negatively affect the international situation or increase tensions.
