Experts argue about how to replace the aging "Satan"
Hot news, as often happens, comes to us from across the ocean.
Former Chief of Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces, Candidate of Military Sciences, Professor of the Academy of Military Sciences, retired Colonel-General Viktor Esin told reporters in Washington at the International Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe that “the decision to create a new intercontinental ballistic missile, which will replace the RS-20 or R-36MUTTH and the R-36M2 "Voyevoda" (according to the western classification SS-18 Satan - "Satan"), has not yet been adopted.
According to the general, "it is possible that such a rocket will appear, but there is no definite decision yet, as long as there is a task to carry out research work." Viktor Esin suggested that “based on the results of these studies, the appearance of a new missile will be determined, after which a decision will be made on the feasibility of its creation, based on the development of the military-strategic situation. In case of a positive result, the quantitative demand for products will also be clarified. " In addition, the expert added that "the development of such a heavy rocket weighing 211 tons will most likely not be carried out, its creators will be able to stop at an intermediate version."
Such a detailed story of Viktor Yesin about the new rocket, which should replace the Voevoda (Satan), is explained, in our opinion, by several circumstances. The first of them is purely objective. The world's largest liquid-propellant heavy missile systems R-36MUTTH and R-36M2, equipped with a multiple warhead with ten warheads each with a capacity of 750 kilotons and a system to overcome the most modern and promising missile defense system, are on alert in our country (in the area of the cities of Dombarovsky and Uzhur in the Orenburg region and in the Krasnoyarsk Territory) for about twenty years. According to open data, as of July of this year, there were only 58 units left (before reductions under the START-1 Treaty there were 308). In the coming years, until 2020, they should go down in history by age. Most of those who are now on alert have already passed the warranty and extended periods, which are determined by their technical passports. The fact that they do not pose any danger to the personnel serving them and are in absolutely serviceable and combat-ready condition is evidenced by the regular launches of these missiles from the test site at Baikonur, as well as the launch of satellites by the "civilian" rocket "Dnepr", which is the "Voyevoda" ("Satan"), removed from combat duty.
But it is still impossible to keep these missile systems in combat formation indefinitely. Like every living creature (and a strategic missile is a living being, no matter how far-fetched and paradoxical these words seem to someone), they have a limiting life span. He comes to his logical conclusion. Moreover, the terms of stay on alert and other domestic strategic missile systems - liquid ballistic missile UR-100NUTTH "Sotka" (according to the western classification SS-19 Stiletto), equipped with six separable warheads of individual guidance, 750 kt each, come to a logical conclusion. … We have 70 of them today, and there were 360, they are deployed in Kozelsk, Kaluga region and Tatishchev, Saratov. And also coming to the end of the warranty period of being on alert and solid-fuel ground strategic missile systems RT-2PM "Topol" (according to the western classification SS-25 Sickle - "Serp"), we still have 171 units, are deployed in Yoshkar-Ola, near Nizhniy Tagil, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Barnaul and in Vypolzovo, Tver region.
If we consider that of the 605 strategic missiles that we now have in combat formation, almost half will be retired in the coming years, then the concern of both the military and the country's leadership is understandable. Not only that it is necessary to fulfill the Prague Treaty (START-3) with the United States, according to which we can (must), like the Americans, have 700 deployed launch vehicles and another 100 in warehouses. The question is more acute. We are a great country with strategic missiles, which, whether someone wants it or not, we have to reckon with. Without them - only a raw material appendage. Either the West, or the East.
But even with the replacement of the "Voevoda" ("Satan"), as well as the "Sotka", not everything is all right. There is a struggle in the leadership of the military-industrial complex, which missiles to replace the outgoing R-36M2 and UR-100NUTTH - liquid or solid-propellant. Behind each of these groups are renowned design bureaus and thousands of production teams that, in spite of everything, are still working. Albeit with a creak. "Liquid workers" offer to almost revive "Satan", they say, its first and second stages can be done again at the Dnepropetrovsk plant "Yuzhmash", where the P-36 was once made, and the rest of the equipment: warheads, disengagement systems, etc. Russia.
True, the problem is that according to the Lisbon Agreement of the early 90s of the last century, signed by the United States, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, none of these countries, except Russia and the United States, can make strategic nuclear missiles. And "Yuzhmash" - in the first place. Taking and getting out of this treaty, as some suggest, is a very risky step. Whether Ukraine is ready for it is a big question. Transferring the creation of a heavy or medium ground liquid-propellant missile to Russia - this also has its own difficulties, which must be discussed separately. This is the opinion of the former general designer of the UR-100NUTTH, winner of the Lenin and State prizes Herbert Efremov.
Russia also has multi-headed solid-propellant missiles, in addition to the long-suffering sea RSM-56 Bulava, which has not yet flown in, the RS-24 soil missile system, which took up combat duty in December last year. There are also monoblock silo and ground missile systems RT-2PM Topol-M (SS-27). Today there are 67 of them. But these missiles cannot yet solve the problems of both the Prague Treaty and the guaranteed security of Russia.
19 trillion rubles allocated by the budget for the State Arms Program for 2011-2020, it is important to spend so that all the problems that Colonel-General Viktor Esin and Academician of the Academy of Military Sciences Herbert Efremov are talking about are resolved. Whether the military and political leadership of the country, as well as our designers and production workers, will succeed in this is a big question.
