Last Wednesday, November 11, a meeting was held at the Bocharov Ruchei Sochi residence with the participation of state leaders, representatives of the Ministry of Defense and the defense industry. During this event, President Vladimir Putin made an important statement that instantly spread across the news feed. The head of state urged to make up for lost time in previous years and develop the armed forces. At the same time, however, he noted that the country should not be drawn into any arms race. The main task is to renew the army, which will help to get rid of the consequences of previous decades of insufficient funding.
It is proposed to modernize the armed forces and renew their materiel in several main areas. One of the main ones is the development of strategic missile forces, which are the most important instrument for ensuring the security of the state. The renewal of the Strategic Missile Forces has become one of the main topics of several recent meetings devoted to the development of the army. In this context, some features of the current work were announced, as well as plans for the future.
During the last meetings V. Putin drew attention to foreign projects of anti-missile systems, which may pose a threat to Russian security. According to the Russian president, the real goal of such projects being implemented by the United States and its allies is not defense against a nuclear missile attack, but the achievement of global military superiority. Such an imbalance in the balance of power poses a great danger, because of which Russia will be forced to take retaliatory measures.
According to the president, Russia will strengthen the potential of its strategic nuclear forces. It is planned to create missile defense systems, but at the moment the main task is to work on strike systems that can overcome any defense of a potential enemy.
At present, serial production and delivery of the latest missile systems to the troops continues. V. Putin once again said that during 2015 the Strategic Missile Forces should receive four regiments with the most modern missiles. This information was repeatedly voiced earlier by various officials and has now been confirmed again. The President did not specify the type of new complexes, however, most likely, it was about the RS-24 Yars systems. The available information on the structure of the missile forces suggests that they will receive 36 state-of-the-art systems this year.
Certain successes have been achieved in the creation of new missile systems, which in the future will replace the existing equipment in service. The closest to adoption is the RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile. It is a further development of the Topol / Yars family and has similar goals. Earlier it was stated that the Rubezh complex would replace the existing Topol-M and Yars missiles in the distant future. Nevertheless, over the next few years, complexes of all three types are likely to be used in parallel.
The development of the RS-26 project started about ten years ago at the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. The existence of a promising project became known only a few years later, when it reached the stage of prototyping and testing. The first launch of an experimental rocket took place in September 2011 and ended in failure (according to other sources, these were successful throw tests). Also in 2011, an alternative designation for the project appeared, which is why in different sources the RS-26 complex can be called both "Rubezh" and "Avangard".
To date, several test launches have been carried out. Almost all launches, with the exception of the very first, ended in a successful defeat of the conditional target. In March 2015, another successful launch took place, after which it was decided to launch mass production of missiles with subsequent deployment in the army.
In 2014 and 2015, officials have repeatedly raised the issue of the timing of the adoption of "Rubezh" into service. So, last year it was argued that these missiles will enter service in 2015. In the spring of this year, the commander-in-chief of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakaev, said that the complex will be put into service at the end of 2015, and serial production will start no later than the first months of 2016.
Work on the RS-26 "Rubezh" project has entered the final stage. In the very near future, the new system will be adopted by the strategic missile forces, and over the next few months, the army will receive the first serial missiles. Until the end of next year, the first formations armed with new complexes will take over the duty. Thus, even now the Rubezh project can be considered successfully completed. The range of the Strategic Missile Forces will be replenished with a new type of missiles with improved characteristics.
In the distant future, the RS-26 Rubezh rocket will have to replace the Topol and Yars systems. In the near future, it is planned to gradually replace heavy ICBMs, such as the R-36M, etc., for which the project of the RS-28 Sarmat missile is currently being developed. By now, some of the features of this promising project have become known, but most of the information is still not subject to disclosure.
The creation of the Sarmat project started at the end of the last decade. The lead developer was the State Missile Center named after V. I. Makeeva. In addition, some other enterprises are involved in the project, in particular, the Reutov NPO Mashinostroyenia. The goal of the project is to create a heavy liquid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile that can replace existing samples of a similar class in the Strategic Missile Forces.
The exact requirements for the rocket remain unknown, although some approximate information has been announced. For example, the former chief of the Strategic Missile Forces General Staff and consultant to the commander of the missile forces Viktor Yesin mentioned that the throw weight of the new missile would reach 5 tons. The flight range has not yet been disclosed. At the same time, Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov noted last year that a promising ICBM will be able to fly through the North or South Pole.
At the end of spring last year, Yuri Borisov also said that all work on the Sarmat project is proceeding in accordance with the schedule. In the summer of 2015, information appeared, according to which the third stage of development work is currently underway. At the same time, it was mentioned that flight tests of a promising rocket would begin next year.
Previously, there was information about the timing of the construction of the first prototype of the RS-28 product. According to TASS, the first prototype of the rocket should be built by mid-autumn. In the future, it will be used in the first throw tests, during which the operation of the launcher and its systems will be checked. It was also reported that as of the end of June, the assembly of the prototype is 60% complete.
At the moment, it can be assumed that tests of the RS-28 "Sarmat" missile will start next year, after which it will take some time to carry out all the necessary checks and improvements. As a result, a promising ICBM will be able to go into series production and take over duty only after a few years. Earlier, it was repeatedly stated that the Sarmat complex would go into operation by the end of the decade - in 2018-20. Given the available information about the current state of the project, such a time frame looks realistic.
Currently, the strategic missile forces are armed with complexes of several types, including those developed several decades ago, during the Soviet Union. In recent years, the Strategic Missile Forces weapons modernization program has been carried out, the purpose of which is to create and put on duty new missile systems. The result of the current work should be a complete rejection of the use of outdated systems with the transition to new ones.
Several years ago, the development of the RS-24 Yars project was completed, after which the Strategic Missile Forces began to receive missiles of a new type. Next year, the troops will receive the first batch of Rubezh systems. By the end of the decade, the arsenal of missile forces will be replenished with the Sarmat complex. Thus, by 2020-22, the basis of the strategic missile forces' armaments will be the complexes created over the past 10-15 years, which will have a positive effect on the combat capability of the Strategic Missile Forces and the strategic security of the state.
