As part of updating the equipment of the armed forces, it is planned not only to purchase already created equipment and weapons, but also to develop new types of them. Last Friday, June 7, there were reports that the Russian strategic missile forces will soon receive a new intercontinental ballistic missile. In the coming months, the serial construction of new ICBMs will begin and they will take up combat duty.
Launch of the Topol-E ICBM, Kapustin Yar training ground, site 107, 2009 (edited photo from
As it became known the other day, on June 6 in the evening (Moscow time) at the Kapustin Yar test site, another test launch of a rocket created according to the Rubezh project took place. Within a few minutes, the rocket delivered several training warheads to training targets. The latter fell on the territory of the Sary-Shagan training ground, located next to Lake Balkhash in Kazakhstan, at a distance of over two thousand kilometers from the launch site. According to reports, the launch of a promising rocket was carried out from a mobile launcher similar to those used in the Topol and Yars missile systems.
The day after the test launch, the head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff, Colonel-General V. Zarudnitsky, announced some details of the event. According to him, the purpose of the test launch was to test some new missile combat equipment. The Colonel General also noted that this was already the fourth test launch within the framework of the Rubezh project and it was successful. All training warheads hit their conditional targets. Testing and development of the rocket is nearing completion. This year, another launch of the Rubezh missile will take place, and if it is successful, the new missile system will be ready for adoption.
For obvious reasons, Colonel-General Zarudnitsky did not talk about the exact characteristics and capabilities of the "Rubezh". He limited himself to only the most general formulations. The new missile system, he said, will significantly expand the potential of the Russian strategic missile forces, since it has higher capabilities and improved maneuverability in comparison with existing systems. More precise data or numbers were not disclosed.
Nevertheless, the head of the Main Operations Directorate spoke about the plans of the military department. After the next test launch, the Rubezh missile system will be put into service and the serial production of missiles will begin. At the same time, the first Rubezh missile systems are planned to be put on duty by the end of this year. According to reports, the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant is currently assembling missiles for testing. Probably, it is this enterprise that will supply the first serial missiles to the Strategic Missile Forces, but some sources mention the upcoming transfer of production to Votkinsk. Now the missile forces are busy preparing the necessary infrastructure and training personnel. Thus, all preparatory work will be completed by the end of 2013.
Unfortunately, very little is known about the new Rubezh missile system. There is no reliable information even about the exact timing of the start of its development. According to various sources, design work began no later than 2006 at the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. The first rocket launch (according to other sources, throw tests) took place at the end of September 2011 and ended in an accident. Two more test launches took place last year, and the last one so far took place last Thursday. Of the four launches, only one ended in an accident, and the other three ended in successful defeat of training targets.
There is almost no information about the design of the new rocket. According to various sources, "Rubezh" was made on the basis of one of the last solid-propellant rockets created at the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering. Thus, the new ICBM may represent a deep modernization of the Topol-M or Yars. Based on this information, the launch weight of the rocket is estimated at no less than 60 tons. There is information about the creation of a new mobile launcher, significantly different from similar machines of previous complexes. The rocket, like other similar systems, is presumably made according to a three-stage scheme.
There are no exact data on the payload of a promising rocket. Earlier, the media mentioned both a monoblock warhead and a warhead that is shared with individual guidance warheads. From reports about the latest launch at the moment, it follows that the "Rubezh" was equipped with several warheads. In addition, the missile carries a certain set of means to overcome the enemy's anti-missile defense.
The "new combat equipment" mentioned by Colonel-General Zarudnitsky raises certain questions and also serves as a reason for various reflections. Thus, the authors of the MilitaryRussia.ru portal suggest that a new maneuvering warhead can be created for the Rubezh missile. This assumption is indirectly confirmed by the fact that the last test launches were carried out from the Kapustin Yar test site for training targets at the Sary-Shagan test site. The latter has a complex of observing facilities necessary to collect information on the progress of the launch. In addition, Sary-Shagan is located in such a way that foreign reconnaissance assets are not able to monitor the progress of the missile's flight, and this can be used for covert testing of promising systems.
As a result, only information about the number of test launches, the approximate timing of their completion, as well as plans for the adoption of the missile system into service is reliably known about the Rubezh project. The technical details of the project are still closed to the general public. However, in the current situation, appropriate conclusions can be drawn. Fragmentary data and various assumptions allow us to hope for the emergence of a new intercontinental ballistic missile for the Strategic Missile Forces, which has significant advantages over the existing ones.
