In the next five years, Russia will have a new "weapon of retaliation" - the Barguzin combat railroad missile systems. Appearing out of nowhere, these rocket trains will be capable of delivering a devastating retaliatory strike against the territory of any enemy
Last week in Kubinka (Moscow region) the first International military-technical forum "Army-2015" was held. The event turned out to be colorful, useful and rich in food for thought. Opening the forum, Russian President Vladimir Putin, in particular, mentioned that our country will continue to actively develop and improve its strategic nuclear weapons. "The composition of the nuclear forces this year will replenish more than 40 new intercontinental ballistic missiles that will be able to overcome any, even the most technically advanced missile defense systems," the head of the Russian state emphasized.
This statement, of course, caused a storm of emotions among Western politicians. "This belligerent rhetoric from Russia is unjustified, dangerous and destabilizing," said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “No one should hear such statements from the leader of a strong country and worry about the possible consequences,” said US Secretary of State John Kerry.
And our most probable enemy really has something to “worry” about. In recent years, Russia has not only been intensively restoring its nuclear missile shield, but has also regained those types of strategic defensive weapons that the United States, with all its technological and financial might, was never able to create, no matter how hard it tried.
We are talking, first of all, about combat railway missile systems (BZHRK), which were created in the Soviet Union by the Utkin brothers - the general designer of the Yuzhnoye design bureau, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin (Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine) and the general designer of the special mechanical engineering design bureau (St. Petersburg, Russia) by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexei Fedorovich Utkin in the mid-80s of the last century. Under the leadership of his elder brother, the RT-23 intercontinental ballistic missile and its railway version - RT-23UTTKh (15Ж61, "Scalpel" according to NATO classification) were created, under the leadership of the younger brother - the "cosmodrome on wheels" itself, capable of carrying three "Scalpels" "And launch them from any point in the Soviet Union with which there is a railway connection.
Mobile combat railway missile system (BZHRK) with intercontinental combat missiles RT-23 UTTH
This weapon turned out to be absolutely lethal. BZHRK "Molodets" in appearance, practically, did not differ from ordinary freight trains. Therefore, it was an impossible task for the American military to calculate their location visually or by means of space observation among the thousands of trains scurrying across the vast country every day. And take measures to intercept - too. Because from the moment of receiving the order to carry out a combat mission to the launch of the first missile, the "Molodets" took less than three minutes. Having received the order, the train stopped at any point on its route, a special device was used to move the catenary to the side, the roof of one of the refrigerated cars was opened and from there a ballistic missile carrying 10 nuclear warheads carrying 10 nuclear warheads at a distance of 10 thousand km … Out of nowhere, 12 Soviet BZHRKs carrying 36 ICBMs in response to a nuclear strike could literally wipe out any European NATO country or several large US states.
American engineers and the military could not create anything of the kind, although they tried. Therefore, Western politicians stepped in, and, at the insistence of the United States and Great Britain, from 1992 to 2003, all Soviet BZHRKs were removed from combat duty and destroyed. The external appearance of two of them can now be viewed only in the museum of railway equipment at the Varshavsky railway station in St. Petersburg and in the Technical Museum of AvtoVAZ.
However, over the past 20 years, the problem of an effective "retaliatory strike" by Russia in the event of aggression has not only not diminished, but has only become aggravated. The new strategy of "global non-nuclear strike", which is guided by the current American authorities, assumes that the territory of a potential enemy will be struck not by a nuclear strike, but by a massive strike by high-precision missiles. Thousands of such missiles, launched from American submarines, surface ships and ground installations, should, like a carpet, cover the most important industrial and energy centers of the enemy, the places where his nuclear potential is based and, ultimately, leave him without "teeth" and the will to resist ….
And one of the guarantees that this scenario will not be implemented on the territory of Russia is the revival in our country of the development and production of combat railway missile systems. Which by one fact of their existence can "cool the ardor" of potential opponents of our country.
Work on their creation has already begun. Shortly before the Army-2015 international military-technical forum, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov told reporters that the draft design of a new Russian BZHRK called "Barguzin" is already ready. By 2020, the Russian Armed Forces should receive up to 5 BZHRK "Barguzin". Their development and construction is carried out at the expense of funds provided for in the state armaments program until 2020.
Information about the beginning of practical work on the reconstruction of the BZHRK was confirmed by the Concern "Radioelectronic Technologies" (KRET), which is developing electronic warfare equipment for new rocket trains. “These developments are underway. Now our institutes are engaged in these developments, and these proposals will be passed on to the lead contractor who will be appointed to restore the BZHRK "- adviser to the deputy head of the concern Vladimir Mikheev told TASS at the Army-2015 forum. "The train must be protected from reconnaissance and defeat, and the missiles themselves that will be used by it are also targets against which the enemy's missile defense will operate," he stressed.
There is still very little information on what the Barguzins will be like. However, it is already quite clear that these will not be "modernized" Well done ", but completely new machines. Firstly, because technologies for 30 years (the first "Molodets" was adopted in 1987) have gone far ahead. Secondly, because all work on the Barguzin is carried out in Russia, without the involvement of the Ukrainian Yuzhnoye design bureau and the Yuzhmash plant.
The main weapon of the Barguzinov will not be the 100-ton Scalpels, but the 50-ton RS-24 Yars missiles. This is a completely Russian rocket - the development of the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, the production of the Votkinsk plant. As you have already noticed, the Yars is twice lighter than the RT-23UTTH, but it also contains a smaller number of separable warheads - 4 (according to open sources) instead of 10 (although it flies almost 1,000 km further than the Scalpel). It is known that each Barguzin will carry 6 Yars. But it is not yet very clear which path the developers of the new rocket train will take - either they will try to put two Yars in each refrigerated car that serves as a transport container for the rocket, or they will limit themselves to one for each rocket, but twice, compared to "Well done", will increase the number of container launchers in each train. At the same time, obviously, the main know-how of the Utkin brothers' creators of the Molodtsa will remain in Barguzin - the rocket launch system: withdrawal of the contact network above the train, mortar launch of the rocket, retraction of it aside with the help of a powder accelerator and the subsequent launch of the main engine. This technology made it possible to divert the jet of the rocket main engine from the launch complex and thereby ensure the stability of the rocket train, the safety of people and engineering structures, including railroad ones. And it was precisely this that the Americans could not bring to life when developing their BZHRK, which in the early 90s of the last century was tested at the US railroad range and the Western Missile Range (Vandenberg Air Base, California).
At the same time, "Barguzin" in general - neither by cars, nor by diesel locomotives, nor by electromagnetic radiation, will not stand out from the total mass of freight trains, thousands of which are now daily scurrying along the Russian railways. Because railway technology has also gone far ahead during this time. For example, "Molodtsa" was hauled by three DM62 diesel locomotives (a special modification of the serial M62 diesel locomotive) with a total capacity of 6 thousand hp. And the capacity of only one current mainline freight two-section diesel locomotive 2TE25A Vityaz, which is serially produced by Transmashholding, is 6,800 hp. The full autonomy of the train is assumed to be the same as for Molodets - 30 days. The cruising range is up to 1000 thousand km per day. This, according to the developers, is enough to ensure the complete secrecy of the "Barguzin" and its ability at any time to strike the enemy with an unexpected retaliation.
