Against the background of the events taking place in the world, foreign mass media recalled the Russian system "Perimeter", known in the West under the name "Dead Hand".
The British press decided to remind its readers about Russia's nuclear power. "Perimeter" is one of the most secret Russian developments in the field of nuclear security and nuclear missile deterrence. The system should provide the ability to deliver a nuclear counterstrike even if there is physically no one to give the order to launch the missiles. At the same time, some experts believe that this system has its own vulnerabilities.
“The Russian nuclear weapons control system, Perimeter, has not only survived since the end of the Cold War, but is also being improved,” Professor Bruce Blair, an American nuclear weapons control expert, told the British Daily Star. This professor is one of the most recognized Western experts and a co-founder of the Global Zero Movement, as well as a research fellow at Princeton University. Among other things, Bruce Blair is a former US Army officer who once directed the launches of the Minuteman ballistic missiles. The Global Zero Movement, co-founded by Blair, advocates achieving "global zero" - the destruction of all existing nuclear arsenals by 2030 and a nuclear-free world (a utopian goal in modern realities).
According to recent events and publications, one gets the impression that the West and Russia have entered a new era of the Cold War. The scandal that erupted around the poisoning in Great Britain of a former GRU employee Sergei Skripal and his daughter with a nerve agent called Novichok only fanned the coals of this confrontation. In connection with this incident alone, more than 100 Russian diplomats were expelled from many countries of the world, including 60 from the United States. Russia responded with mirror measures, calling the West's decision a mistake. Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin have denied any involvement in the assassination attempt on Skripal, arguing that the UK has no evidence of the Russian Federation's involvement in the case, the Daily Star notes, stressing that the crisis is likely to continue.
The "Dead Hand", as it is called in Western countries (also called the "Doomsday Machine"), is an automatic system that only needs a few people to operate, Bruce Blair explained to the Daily Star. According to the specialist, to activate it, it is necessary to perform a fairly small number of functions. At the same time, the military, who can activate the system, do not need to have high ranks and positions, they will simply have to respond to its signals. "Perimeter" is designed so that Moscow could respond to a nuclear strike, even if all the command and top leadership of Russia is destroyed as a result of the first strike from the United States, the British newspaper emphasizes.
The system has a sufficiently developed network of sensors that are able to recognize nuclear explosions on Russian territory. The system then launches a "command missile", which sends out a signal that activates all other strategic nuclear missiles in the country located in their positions. In addition, non-nuclear forces, for example, submarines or bombers, which are currently in different parts of the world, receive a signal of a retaliatory attack.
“This means that even a 'tactical' strike that would destroy the top Russian leadership will not prevent the apocalypse of the subsequent third world war,” the Daily Star journalists emphasize. According to American expert Bruce Blair, the development and launch of the Perimeter system is a legal and ethical way to prevent a possible nuclear war, since the “containment” of a potential adversary is based on potential and inevitable retaliation. "A working Perimeter means that the West should always think twice when it is tempted or tempted to launch a nuclear strike," the British tabloid notes.
Command missile 15A11 of the "Perimeter" system
The British counterpart to Dead Hand is the Letters of Last Resort, handwritten by the British Prime Minister after taking office. Secret letters are written in the event of a nuclear attack on the country and the death of the government. This procedure is one of the parts of the protocol that must be followed by every new head of the British Cabinet of Ministers. The so-called letters of last resort are handwritten in four copies, then sealed in envelopes and handed over to the commanders of four submarines armed with nuclear-armed Trident ballistic missiles. Letters from the country's prime minister are stored on these submarines inside double safes located at the submarine's central control posts.
The text of these letters will never be made public. With the departure of the head of government, these letters are subject to destruction. It is believed that their text contains an order on one of four options for possible actions: inflicting a retaliatory nuclear strike on the enemy; refusal to strike; decision making at its own discretion; transfer to the command of the union state.
At the same time, Bruce Blair expressed concern that the Russian Perimeter system is vulnerable to modern cyber attacks, and this circumstance, in turn, poses a threat to the security of the world. The fact that the Pentagon is seriously considering the possibility of large-scale cyberattacks against Russia (as a response to "Russian aggression") was previously reported on several occasions. It is possible that one of the targets for such attacks could be the Perimeter system, which, according to some sources, is based south of Moscow in a deep bunker. The existence of this system was at one time confirmed by the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Sergei Karakaev, writes the British tabloid.
Indeed, in an interview with the Russian newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda in December 2011, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General Sergei Karakaev (now Colonel General), told reporters about the existence of Perimeter. “The system really exists, it is on alert. If there is a need for a retaliatory nuclear strike, when it will not be possible to bring the corresponding signal to some part of the launchers, this command will come to the missiles from the Perimeter system,”Karakaev noted then.
Alexei Leonkov, editor of the magazine Arsenal of the Fatherland, explained to the journalists of the Russian newspaper Vzglyad that the Perimeter system, which includes a network of ballistic missile silos, was created and put on alert during the Soviet era. It was assumed that in the event of a surprise attack from the enemy, which would lead to the elimination of the military-political leadership of the state and there would be no one to press the "red button", the system's sensors would automatically be able to detect the fact of a nuclear strike based on the analysis of various data: seismic vibrations, electromagnetic radiation, ionizing conditions of the atmosphere, etc. After that, a "command" missile will be launched, which will strike back at the enemy, Leonkov said. “The emergence of the Perimeter system in the 1980s, at the time of another round of tension and the aggravation of the Cold War, came as an unpleasant surprise for the West, and it was then that the system was nicknamed the“Dead Hand,”stressed Alexei Leonkov.
According to him, there is another system in Russia today, which is currently being improved. We are talking about the early warning system - missile attack warning system. If the "Perimeter" is a system that is designed to retaliate against the enemy as a result of receiving a nuclear strike, then the early warning system allows for a retaliatory strike when the enemy's ballistic missiles have not yet reached Russian territory.
Tests of the new Sarmat ICBM
In our country, experts attributed the publication in the British newspaper Daily Star to the growing tension between Moscow and London over the Skripals case. Probably, the scandal that broke out made London think about the risks of a further quarrel with Russia. Alexey Leonkov disagrees with the American professor Blair only that Perimeter is vulnerable to hacker attacks. According to him, both the system and all the launchers included in such a type of troops as the Strategic Missile Forces are protected from cyberattacks. External influence on them is completely excluded, the Russian expert believes. “Moreover, the impact of a different nature is excluded - electromagnetic radiation or even a direct nuclear strike. The system has appropriate protection, the country is ready for any scenario,”said Leonkov.
The appearance in the British press of an article about the Russian system "Perimeter" commented on the RT channel by a military expert and vice-president of the Russian Academy of Geopolitical Problems Vladimir Anokhin. “The fact is that the Perimeter system is already, relatively speaking, a hundred years old. Why it has surfaced in the British press right now, I do not know. Most likely, there is a shortage of topics or there is nothing to blame Moscow for. Therefore, we decided to create conditions to indirectly demonstrate once again that Russia is a huge threat that must be looked at closely, and that the “Dead Hand” is one of the systems that is capable of destroying the entire world community. This is the only explanation for the fact that the press has surfaced the mention of this system. This material is aimed at intimidating citizens. This is an attempt to demonstrate that the Russian Federation is seriously preparing for a nuclear war and that it has all the possibilities for destruction,”said Vladimir Anokhin.
Against the backdrop of tensions that literally permeate world politics today, Russia continues to renew its nuclear forces. Not so long ago it became known that the newest Russian silo-based missile system equipped with the RS-28 Sarmat heavy intercontinental ballistic missile is planned to be put on alert in the Uzhur missile division of the Strategic Missile Forces by 2021. Sources in the Russian military-industrial complex told reporters about it. At the same time, the serial production of new ballistic missiles according to plans should begin as early as 2020.
