At the time of the collapse of the Union, the Strategic Missile Forces had six armies and 28 divisions. The number of missiles on alert reached its peak in 1985 (2,500 missiles, of which 1,398 are intercontinental). At the same time, the largest number of warheads on alert was noted in 1986 - 10,300.
The expert notes that even the most powerful armies in the world, whose defense budget is many times higher than the Russian one and a dozen times more than the GDP of their countries, are forced to reckon with our opinion and our position on the world stage.
The Strategic Missile Forces have three missile armies. Their headquarters are located in Omsk, Orenburg and Vladimir. The armies consist of 12 divisions of constant readiness, as well as missile ranges, arsenals, communications centers and training centers.
At present, the Strategic Missile Forces group includes about 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles with nuclear warheads of various power classes. More than 60% of strategic weapons and warheads of Russia's strategic nuclear forces are concentrated in the troops.
HEAVY "VOIVODA" AND "SARMAT"
According to data from open sources, the Strategic Missile Forces are armed with about 400 mobile and silo-based ICBMs, carrying about 950 warheads.
The most difficult of them - "Voivode" ("Satan", as she is called in the West). Index R-36M2 (SS-18). It is liquid-propellant, mine-based, weighs 210 tons, and can carry 10 independently targetable nuclear warheads capable of penetrating any missile defense system. The power of each warhead is 750 kilotons.
We have about 46 such missiles. It was created at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Dnepropetrovsk), entered service in 1988 and will remain on alert until 2022, when it will be replaced by the new Sarmat strategic missile.
It is twice as light, but it can carry to the target many more nuclear warheads of individual guidance (according to open sources - up to 15). Moreover, these warheads will have hypersonic speed, change the flight path along the course and altitude, and bend around the terrain. No missile defense system will be able to cope with them - neither the current one, nor the future one.
According to the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakaev, the reliability indicators of the Voevoda complex remain stable after 28 years of operation.
The prototype of the new Sarmat ballistic missile was ready in the fall of 2015, but the throw tests have not yet begun. A source in the military-industrial complex told TASS earlier that this was due to the unavailability of the silo launcher at the Plesetsk cosmodrome. According to him, tests should take place at the end of 2016.
YARS POTENTIAL
In service with the Strategic Missile Forces, there is still a two-stage liquid-propellant missile, silo-based UT-100NUTTH, popularly nicknamed "weaving" (SS-19 according to Western qualifications, or Stiletto).
It was created at the Mechanical Engineering Design Bureau (Reutov, Moscow Region) and entered service in 1979. Its starting weight is 105.6 tons. It has six individual targeting warheads with a capacity of 750 kilotons. We have 40 such missiles left. At combat positions in mines, they are replaced by Yars solid-propellant missile systems, which, according to open sources, have three warheads with a capacity of 150-300 kilotons, flying towards the target also at hypersonic speed.
Yars, in contrast to Topol, which it is replacing, has more opportunities for using the positional area. As the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces said, its design features make it possible to carry out launches from sites where the Topol could be on duty only after special engineering re-equipment. The characteristics of communications equipment and the base chassis have also improved, the missile itself has become more powerful and practically invulnerable to the existing anti-missile defense of the enemy.
The mine-based solid-fuel Yars (RS-24), created at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, are already on alert in the Vladimir missile division, in particular in one of the regiments in Kozelsk, and mobile Yars complexes have arrived this year in the amount of 23 units in the regiments of the Strategic Missile Forces in Teikovo, Nizhny Tagil and Novosibirsk. And in 2017, mobile and mine "Yars" will continue to enter the Kozelsk, Yoshkar-Olinsky, Novosibirsk and Irkutsk missile formations.
"TOPOL" AND "BARGUZIN"
In addition to the solid-propellant Yars, the Strategic Missile Forces are armed with the Topol and Topol-M monoblock missile systems (SS-25 and SS-27), also created at the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering.
We have about 70 such missiles today. They are gradually giving way to the Yars, but they are not utilized, but are used to test new combat equipment for promising missiles.
"Topol-M" has been on alert since 1997. It exists in mine and mobile versions. According to open data, we have about 80 of them. But these missiles have also ceased to be fired. They are being replaced by "Yars".
Another missile system, Rubezh (RS-26), has been created on the basis of Yars. It is assumed that the "Rubezh" will be lighter than the "Yars", have improved combat equipment and a multiple warhead. Such missiles will be launched only from mobile complexes - there is no silo-based option.
The TASS military expert does not exclude that these missiles will also be included in the reviving BZHRK (combat railway missile system), which was removed from combat duty at the end of the last century for a number of reasons.
Now there are no such restrictions. The new Barguzin rocket train (its development was announced in 2014. - TASS note) will not have three ballistic missiles, as it used to be, but six each. The solid-fuel "Rubezh" is much lighter than the "Molodets", and trains with it will move along the railway network of Russia without any obstacles.
The divisional set of "Barguzin" is supposed to have five regiments. It was planned to commission the complex in 2019–2020. The Strategic Missile Forces expects that the new complexes will remain in service until at least 2040.
The TASS military observer emphasizes that all these changes in the composition of the Strategic Missile Forces are and will take place within the framework of the Prague Treaty (START-3), which was signed with the United States in 2010.
By the end of the implementation of this agreement, both we and the United States should have 700 deployed carriers (another 100 in warehouses), and they have 1,550 nuclear units. Our country flawlessly fulfills its obligations. The Strategic Missile Forces, together with the strategic nuclear forces of the Navy and the Aerospace Forces - the forces of containment of the potential aggressor - continue to stand on constant alert duty, like permanent sentries, and reliably protect the security and national interests of Russia
The amounts of funding allocated under the state armament program until 2020 make it possible to maintain the pace of rearmament of troops. Ultimately, as the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces stated, the troops will have a balanced structure, and the armament will have an optimal number of missiles designed to solve the diverse tasks of ensuring nuclear deterrence and the security of Russia.
