Special train
Just a few years ago, the Russian railway network carried secret compounds. Outwardly, they were almost no different from the passenger trains familiar to the eye. But the dispatchers tried to schedule their movement in such a way that they passed the busy and crowded stations of large cities at night or at dawn. They should not have caught the eye of ordinary people. Ghost Trains, or BZHRK - combat railway missile systems , - carried a combat watch in the Siberian taiga, in the North and Far East with nuclear weapons. And along with nuclear-powered ships, aviation and the Missile Forces, they maintained and maintain the strategic balance in the world.
Few people know that military “armored trains” were created and existed after the Great Patriotic War. Every "special train" was equated to a missile regiment (!) and included three M62 diesel locomotives, three seemingly ordinary railway refrigerator cars ( hallmark- eight wheel pairs), a command car, and cars with autonomous systems energy supply and life support and for accommodating duty shift personnel. In total, there are 12 carriages.
Moreover, each of "reefers" was capable of launching a nuclear missile both as part of a train and in autonomous mode. It should be said that such a carriage can be seen today in Ministry of Railways Museum- in the city of St. Petersburg.
Often, after the “night visitor,” the railroad tracks were so flattened that the tracks had to be completely repaired, although the carriages had the inscription “for the transportation of light loads” (according to the principle “the enemy should be misled”).
It is thanks to these "special trains" The Ministry of Railways was forced to reconstruct many thousands of kilometers of railway lines throughout the USSR in as soon as possible. What was the impetus for the development of this kind of military equipment?
Information about the creation of a rocket by the Americans "MX", - The new generation ICBMs became a cause for concern among the Soviet leadership, after which an order was given to create new ICBMs and work was accelerated on a number of ongoing projects.
Order “On the creation of a mobile combat railway missile system (BZHRK) with the RT-23 missile” was signed on January 13, 1969. The Yuzhnoye design bureau was appointed as the lead developer. According to the developers, the BZHRK was supposed to form the basis of the retaliatory strike group, since it had increased survivability and could survive the enemy’s first strike.
– the materialization of the fears of the darkest times of the Cold War. By the mid-70s of the last century, neither Moscow nor Washington had any doubts that the contents of their arsenals were quite sufficient to destroy all life on the territory of a potential enemy. And more than once. It was then that the number of American strategic and tactical warheads reached its peak and was approaching 30 thousand; the Soviet Union was rapidly catching up with the States (and by the end of the 70s it had even successfully surpassed it).
It would seem that the balance of fear, which is based on “guarantees of mutual destruction,” has been achieved. However, the military proved to the political leadership that, having destroyed the enemy’s strategic forces with a sudden first strike, the aggressor still had a chance to avoid responding. That is why, in the nuclear confrontation between the two superpowers, the main task at this stage was the development of weapons systems that are guaranteed to survive the first strike. In order to destroy the enemy in response, even if the country they are protecting no longer exists. The BZHRK has become one of the most successful weapons systems created to cause "strike of retaliation".
It cannot be said that the placement of a combat ballistic missile on a railway platform in itself is purely Russian know-how. For the first time, Soviet rocket scientists encountered something like this, even when they were sorting out the trophies that they received after the victory over Germany. At the end of the war, the Germans experimented with mobile launch complexes for their V-2, including trying to place it both on open platforms and directly in railway cars. In the 50-60s on projects combat railway complexes Our most famous rocket designers of that time worked - Semyon Lavochkin, Mikhail Yangel, Sergei Korolev.
True, nothing good came of this: the liquid-fuel rockets available at that time were too bulky and unreliable. Even after the army and navy began to rearm with solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missiles in the mid-70s, the creation of a BZHRK continued to be an extremely difficult technical task. As a result, since the release of the first government decree in January 1969 on the start of development railway missile system RT-23 More than two decades passed before the final adoption of the BZHRK into service in November 1989.
In the mid-80s, a rocket-carrying train was built in the USSR, which, apparently, will remain one and only in the history of mankind. According to experts, this is the most formidable weapon that has ever existed on earth. It was created by teams led by brothers Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin and Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Alexey Fedorovich Utkin.
The brothers were born in the Ryazan region, in the village of Lashma on the banks of the Oka. There were two more brothers in the family. The contribution of this family to the country's defense can hardly be overestimated. In 1941, after graduating from school in the city Kasimov, Vladimir went to the front and fought the entire war from the first to last day. He was a signalman, and this military specialty instilled in him special responsibility. He miraculously survived the war. It ended for Vladimir Utkin in October 1945. And in the fall of 1946, following the example of the brothers Nikolai and Alexei, he entered the Leningrad Military Mech. The brothers lived a friendly, but difficult life; they worked part-time at a railway station. They unloaded coal and did not think that someday they would have to load the cars with strategic missiles.
After graduating from the institute, Vladimir Utkin was sent to the military industry, where new, fresh minds were needed. After all, now, with the advent of the Cold War, the front line passed through Yuzhmash, Baikonur, Arzamas-17 and other military-industrial complex enterprises. In October 1961, from the rostrum of the XXII Congress of the CPSU, suddenly, unexpectedly, in his characteristic emotional manner, N.S. Khrushchev unleashed a devastating message on the whole world: the USSR tested a hydrogen bomb on Novaya Zemlya with a capacity of 50 million tons of TNT - this is more TNT than was exploded during the six years of World War II by all its participants.
This message sent a signal to the Americans: although you are 10 times superior to us in carriers nuclear weapons, but just one such bomb delivered to US territory will ensure the inevitability of retaliation. This is all true, but for all its advantages, rocket- nuclear weapon was still vulnerable, and our potential adversaries had long known about the launch sites for intercontinental missiles. If a hydrogen bomb had exploded over a missile base area or over strategic aviation airfields, there would be little left of its former nuclear power. The doctrine of the inevitability of retribution began to crack at all the seams. And then the arms race began at a new level: the creation of silos for missiles that could strike back, transferring them to submarines and on board strategic bombers.
The Americans hid their "Titans 2", We - "R-16". But very soon it became clear that a precisely aimed intercontinental missile could reach a target in a silo. The Pershing 2 rocket was capable of flying to us from Europe in 6-8 minutes. It took exactly that long to open the 200-ton hatch of our nuclear missile silo. We responded to the Americans in a timely manner, but they had already completed the creation of the fourth generation Trident-2 missiles, and no engineering protection would help the missile systems survive in the event of a missile attack. Therefore, the decision was made to create mobile missile systems.
The Kremlin understood: fundamentally new technical solutions. In 1979, the USSR Minister of General Mechanical Engineering Sergei Aleksandrovich Afanasyev set a fantastic task for the Utkins designers. This is what Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin said shortly before his death:
“The task that the Soviet government set before us was striking in its enormity. In domestic and world practice, no one has ever encountered so many problems. We had to place an intercontinental ballistic missile in railway carriage, but a rocket with launcher weighs more than 150 tons. How to do it? After all, a train with such a huge load must travel along the national tracks of the Ministry of Railways. How to transport strategic missile with a nuclear warhead, how to ensure absolute safety on the way, because we were given an estimated train speed of up to 120 km/h. Will the bridges hold up, will the track and the launch itself not collapse, how can the load be transferred to the railway track when the rocket is launched, will the train stand on the rails during the launch, how can the rocket be raised to a vertical position as quickly as possible after the train stops?”
Yes, there were many questions, but they had to be resolved. Alexey Utkin took over the launch train, and the elder Utkin took over the rocket itself and the rocket complex as a whole. Returning to Dnepropetrovsk, he thought painfully: “Is this task feasible? Weight up to 150 tons, almost instantaneous launch, 10 nuclear warheads, a system for overcoming missile defense, how can it fit into the dimensions of a regular carriage, and there are three missiles in each train?!” But as often happens, complex tasks always find brilliant performers. So in the late 70s, Vladimir and Alexei Utkin found themselves at the very epicenter of the Cold War, and not only found themselves, but became its commanders in chief. In Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, Vladimir Utkin forced himself to forget about his doubts: such a rocket can and should be built!
They decided to make the engine using solid fuel, but there were no such developments in the design bureau at that time. Despite enormous difficulties, such an engine was created. Further: a rocket with a TPK must weigh no more than 130 tons, otherwise the railway track will not support it, which means new materials are needed; a rocket cannot be longer than an ordinary refrigerator car, but the design bureau did not create such short ones. Then they decided to remove the nozzles from the engines themselves, although the world practice of rocket science did not know such solutions. The head fairing protrudes from the other end of the car, it is impossible without it - there will be no accuracy, first they made it inflatable, but, according to calculations, it would not be able to overcome the barrier nuclear explosions missile defense. Then they designed a metal folding fairing!
But in the composition "rocket train" there is also a unique command module, the feature of which is increased protection against powerful electromagnetic radiation contact network. Unique special communications antennas have been developed for it, which are guaranteed to ensure the reception of combat control signals through the radio-transparent roofs of the cars. There was no way to take them outside, since the BZHRK should be in every way like an ordinary train.
Finally, it was necessary to ensure complete autonomy "rocket train" during his trips to combat patrol routes, the length of which reaches 1.5-2 thousand km.
Meanwhile, at the Special Engineering Design Bureau, Alexey Utkin and his colleagues were already designing a unique spaceport on wheels. Testing of components and assemblies of the future began at the test site near Leningrad missile carrier. There were a lot of questions: how to remove contact wires in electrified areas, how to lift a rocket into a vertical position in a matter of seconds, how to ensure a launch two minutes after the train stops? And the main thing is the start. How to prevent the fiery tail of a rocket from burning the sleepers like matches, and from melting the rails with its hellish temperature? And how to solve these issues? Decided!
The powder engine pushes the rocket to a small height, the rocket maneuver engine is turned on, and the gas jet of the rocket's propulsion engine passes past the cars, container and railroad tracks. Finally, the main solution was found that crowned all the others and provided a margin of engineering strength for many years to come. After all, by that time no one in the world could create anything like this. " I am proud that our teams solved this fantastically complex problem, - Vladimir Fedorovich later said. – We had to make this rocket train and we did it!» The first missile train was put into service in 1987, the last – the 12th – was commissioned in 1992.
First Missile Regiment with a rocket RT-23UTTH went on combat duty in October 1987, and by mid-1988 7 regiments were deployed (about 20 launchers in total, all in the Kostroma area). The trains were located at a distance of about four kilometers from each other in stationary structures, and when they went on combat duty, the trains were dispersed.
By 1991 deployed three missile divisions, armed BZHRK And ICBM RT-23UTTH(in the Kostroma region, Perm region and Krasnoyarsk Territory), each of which has four missile regiments (a total of 12 BZHRK trains, three launchers each). Within a radius of 1,500 km from the BZHRK bases, joint measures with the Russian Ministry of Railways were carried out to modernize the railway track: heavier rails were laid, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete ones, embankments were strengthened with denser crushed stone.
Rocket flight tests RT-23UTTH(15Zh61) were carried out from February 27, 1985 to December 22, 1987 at NIIP-53 (Mirny), a total of 32 launches were made. 18 trains were carried out for endurance and transport tests, during which more than 400 thousand kilometers were covered on the country's railways. Tests were carried out in various climatic zones from Salekhard in the north to Chardzhou in the south, from Cherepovets in the west to Chita in the east.
In 1988 on Semipalatinsk test site special tests were successfully carried out BZHRK on the impact of electromagnetic radiation (“Shine”) and lightning protection (“Thunderstorm”). In 1991 At NIIP-53, a test was carried out for the impact of a shock wave (“Shift”). Two launchers and a command post were tested. The test objects were located: one (the launcher with the rocket's electrical layout loaded into it, as well as the control gear) - at a distance of 850m from the center of the explosion, the other (the second launcher) - at a distance of 450m with the end facing the center of the explosion. A shock wave with a TNT equivalent of 1000 tons did not affect the performance of the rocket and launcher.
According to those who had to participate in its training launches from the northern training ground "Plesetsk", this is an enchanting spectacle. Having received the order to launch, the “nuclear train” stops and fixes itself on the railway track. A special device rises above the train, which moves the contact network aside. At this time, a flight mission with specified coordinates of the launch site and target is already loaded into the missile warheads (the missile can launch from any point on the combat patrol route where the train is located at the time the order is received).
The hinged roofs of the cars, in which the missiles are located in their transport and launch containers (TLC), move to the side. Powerful jacks lift the TPP into a vertical position. Having received a command to launch, the rocket is ejected from the container 20-30 m by a powder pressure accumulator, correction pulses take it slightly away from the launch, and then the main engine is turned on, which with a roar carries the “Molodets” into the sky, leaving behind a thick a plume of smoke characteristic of solid-fuel rockets.
They have become a constant headache for Americans. The Pentagon spent more money tracking them than the Utkin brothers spent creating them. Twelve reconnaissance satellites searched for them throughout our country, and even from space they could not distinguish these ghost trains from ordinary refrigerators. Back in the 60s of the last century, the Americans began developing similar complexes, but things did not go well. And after the missile trains entered the Ministry of Railways, they took an unprecedented action: under the guise of commercial cargo from Vladivostok, they sent containers in transit to one of the Scandinavian countries, one of which was stuffed with reconnaissance equipment for radio interception, analysis of the radiation situation and even filming through a secret membrane in the body of the spy container. But after the train departed from Vladivostok, the container was opened by our counterintelligence officers. The American idea failed.
But times have changed, in the early 90s our potential opponents turned almost into friends, though also potential ones. We blew up mines, cut down rockets. And now they are looking closely at how they can behead our “Scalpel”. R rocket railway spaceports It was considered inappropriate to drive all over the country, and a decision was made to transfer “Scalpels” to duty in restricted areas. Now, to the joy of the Americans, they are all there, and they are protected only from mushroom pickers...
Yes, the Americans have achieved a lot; they set the destruction of missiles as a condition in disarmament negotiations SS-18, “affectionately” called “Satan” by them, and a unique rocket train "Scalpel". Gorbachev, who came to power, immediately agreed, and Yeltsin followed his example. The Americans hastily allocated money to destroy the hated missiles and even provided the latest cutting devices. One by one, the missile systems were turned into scrap metal. Although on those rockets it was possible to launch satellites suitable for the national economy. After all, it is unforgivably stupid to destroy complexes that the entire color worked to create national science in different industries.
Appointed director of the parent institute "TSNIIMASH" Vladimir Utkin forever leaves the design work of creating combat missile systems, and fate again brings him together with the Americans, but now astronauts. Meeting with them, Vladimir Fedorovich said: “Space is a field where we must sow only peaceful seeds and not enter into this space with anything else. And from there learn to live on Earth so well that you see and think: “What are they doing there, on little Earth?” And these words are not a retreat from previous positions, but an understanding that he created all his work on the development of missile systems involuntarily, in response to a threat from the other side, in the interests of defending the Motherland. Created parity, which ultimately helped and is helping to save the world from thermonuclear war.
Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, academician, laureate of Lenin and State Prize, unfortunately, did not live to see his 80th birthday. In the cities of Ryazan and Kasimov, as well as at the Troekurovsky cemetery in Moscow, where Vladimir Fedorovich is buried, monuments to him were erected.
Yes, he was a great designer, but only a narrow circle of people knew about him. Vladimir Utkin created the SS-18 missile, the most powerful and reliable in the world, which carries 10 nuclear warheads and 40 decoys. To this day, Americans cannot do anything like this.
With the creation of the Scalpel railway-based missile system, the life of the Utkin brothers turned into a legend. They carried out the task entrusted to them by their country with amazing talent and incredible ingenuity.
How it worked.
A train with "refrigerators" left, which appearance were no different from the real ones. Each composition contains three modules. Each module contains three cars and a shunting motor locomotive, also camouflaged as a refrigerator on wheels. Launches from this train were not carried out while moving or at any stop, as they write today in Russian publications. The train arrived at a certain point on the railway - its base. The modules were unhooked from the main locomotive and, with the help of shunting diesel locomotives, “scattered” along railway lines within a radius of 80-120 kilometers. Usually it was a triangle. At each of its peaks, where there were concrete pedestals, these missile systems were on combat duty for 12 hours or a day. Then they “ran back” to the traction diesel locomotive and moved to the next point. And there were 200 of them on the territory of the Union. By the way, the module cars were not uncoupled: just as they were docked in Pavlograd, they rolled across the vast expanses of our former huge Motherland. In addition, they were completely autonomous. In addition to the launch car, the module included a 60 cc fuel tank made of stainless steel. Pipelines ran from it, which made it possible to refuel diesel locomotives on the move.
Start
Two three-meter telescopic “paws” came out from under the bottom of the car and rested on special reinforced concrete pedestals, rigidly fixing the starting car. The car itself also had an aiming platform, which, when the car was fixed, rested tightly against the railway track, reading the coordinates of the module’s location. Thus, at each point of combat duty, each missile received a clear program and a given flight path to the real target of a potential enemy.
When the launch car is already fixed at a certain point on the railway, at the operator’s command, hydraulic pinning jacks release its roof. Then the end hydraulic jacks operate synchronously, and the car opens like a chest, only in two halves. At the same seconds, the main hydraulic pump of the main hydraulic jack begins to work actively, and the huge “cigar” of the TPK smoothly becomes vertical and is fixed with side brackets. All! The rocket is ready for launch!
The missile carries a MIRV-type multiple warhead with 10 warheads with a yield of 500 kt each. (An atomic bomb with a yield of 10 kilotons was dropped on Hiroshima.) Flight range is 10 thousand kilometers.
Mariupol machine builders equipped these trains with very reliable TVR (temperature and humidity) systems and fire extinguishing systems. Flight tests of the rocket were carried out from February 27, 1985 to December 22, 1987. A total of 32 launches were made.
By the way, for the successful testing of the “Scalpel” in Plesetsk, a group of leading Ukrainian designers and machine builders were presented with high government awards. They were mainly awarded the medal “For Labor Valour,” but soon they were to be awarded the honorary title “Honored Worker of Transport of the USSR.” Although, according to the regulations in force at that time, the “distance” from award to award was at least three years. It took a special petition from the industry minister for the early assignment of “deserved” ones.
In 1991, the list was placed on the table of Mikhail Gorbachev, who in a week or two was to part with the presidency of the head of the superpower. What Mikhail Sergeevich thought then, only he knows. But he dealt with the candidates for “merit” in his characteristic spirit of making unpredictable decisions. Gorbachev decided: the last citizen of the Soviet Union, which was bursting at the seams, to whom he would assign this high title of “honored” would be... Alla Borisovna Pugacheva. Signed - President of the USSR...
June 16, 2005, the penultimate of the railway-based missile systems "Scalpel" was sent from the Kostroma connection missile forces to a storage base for subsequent disposal. The last of them is scheduled to be destroyed in September 2005. The official reason why "Scalpels" removal from service is called expiration of service life, although if we take into account that they were put into service in 91-94, this period should expire only by 2018, provided that regular maintenance is carried out by the manufacturer. But the plant in Pavlovgrad (Ukraine) now makes trolleybuses instead of rockets. And Ukraine, having become a nuclear-free power, under the terms of the agreement cannot have, produce or maintain nuclear weapons, especially now that the new Ukrainian authorities have set a course to the west. And the equipment for the production of missiles in service with Russia is being melted down.
In Russia, a new nuclear weapon is preparing for the final stage of testing - the Barguzin combat railway missile system (BZHRK), created on the basis of its predecessor, the Molodets BZHRK (SS-24 Scalpel), which was on combat duty from 1987 to 2005 and was withdrawn from service by agreement with the United States in 1993. What forced Russia to return to creating these weapons again?
When the Americans once again confirmed the deployment of their missile defense facilities in Europe in 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin quite harshly formulated Russia’s response to this. He officially stated that the creation of an American missile defense system actually “resets our nuclear missile potential” and announced that our response would be “the development of strike nuclear missile systems.”
One of these complexes was the Barguzin BZHRK, which the American military especially did not like, causing them serious concern, since its adoption into service makes the presence of a US missile defense system as such practically useless.
Predecessor of "Bargruzin" "Well done"
The BZHRK was already in service with the Strategic Missile Forces until 2005. Its main developer in the USSR was the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Ukraine). The only manufacturer of rockets is the Pavlograd Mechanical Plant. Tests of the BZHRK with the RT-23UTTKh "Molodets" missile (according to NATO classification - SS-24 Scalpel) in the railway version began in February 1985 and were completed by 1987. BZHRKs looked like ordinary trains consisting of refrigerated, postal and luggage cars, and even passenger cars.
Inside each train there were three launchers with Molodets solid-propellant missiles, as well as their entire support system with a command post and combat crews. The first BZHRK was put on combat duty in 1987 in Kostroma. In 1988, five regiments were deployed (a total of 15 launchers), and by 1991, three missile divisions were deployed: near Kostroma, Perm and Krasnoyarsk - each consisting of four missile regiments (a total of 12 BZHRK trains).
Each train consisted of several cars. One carriage is a command post, the other three – with an opening roof – are launchers with missiles. Moreover, the missiles could be launched both from planned stops and from any point along the route. To do this, the train was stopped, a special device was used to move the contact suspension of electrical wires to the sides, the launch container was placed in a vertical position, and the rocket was launched.
The complexes stood at a distance of about four kilometers from each other in permanent shelters. Within a radius of 1,500 kilometers from their bases, together with railway workers, work was carried out to strengthen the track: heavier rails were laid, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete ones, embankments were filled with denser crushed stone.
Only professionals could distinguish the BZHRK from ordinary freight trains, thousands of them plying across the expanses of Russia (the launch modules with the rocket had eight wheel pairs, the rest of the support cars had four each). The train could cover about 1,200 kilometers in one day. Its combat patrol time was 21 days (thanks to the reserves on board, it could operate autonomously for up to 28 days).
BZHRK was given great importance, even the officers who served on these trains had ranks higher than their colleagues in similar positions in the mine complexes.
Soviet BZHRK – a shock for Washington
The rocket scientists tell either a legend or a true story that the Americans themselves allegedly pushed our designers to create the BZHRK. They say that one day our intelligence received information that the United States was working on creating a railway complex that would be able to move through underground tunnels and, if necessary, emerge from the ground at certain points in order to unexpectedly launch a strategic missile for the enemy.
The scouts' report even included photographs of this train. Apparently, these data made a strong impression on Soviet leadership, since it was immediately decided to create something similar. But our engineers approached this issue more creatively. They decided: why drive trains underground? You can put them on regular railways, disguised as freight trains. It will be simpler, cheaper and more effective.
Later, however, it turned out that the Americans conducted special studies that showed that in their conditions, BZHRKs would not be effective enough. They simply slipped misinformation to us in order to once again shake up the Soviet budget, forcing us, as it seemed to them then, into useless spending, and the photo was taken from a small full-scale model.
But by the time all this became clear, it was too late for Soviet engineers to work back. They, and not only in the drawings, have already created a new nuclear weapon with an individually targeted missile, a range of ten thousand kilometers with ten warheads with a capacity of 0.43 Mt and a serious set of means to overcome missile defense.
In Washington, this news caused a real shock. Still would! How do you determine which of the “freight trains” to destroy in the event of a nuclear strike? If you shoot at everyone at once, there won’t be enough nuclear warheads. Therefore, in order to track the movement of these trains, which easily escaped the field of view of tracking systems, the Americans had to almost constantly keep a constellation of 18 spy satellites over Russia, which was very costly for them. Especially considering that US intelligence services have never been able to identify a BZHRK along the patrol route.
Therefore, as soon as the political situation allowed it in the early 90s, the United States immediately tried to get rid of this headache. At first, they persuaded the Russian authorities not to allow the BZHRKs to travel around the country, but to remain laid up. This allowed them to constantly keep only three or four spy satellites over Russia instead of 16–18. And then they persuaded our politicians to completely destroy the BZHRK. They officially agreed under the pretext of the alleged “expiration of the warranty period for their operation.”
How to cut "Scalpels"
The last combat train was sent for melting down in 2005. Eyewitnesses said that when, in the twilight of the night, the wheels of the cars clattered on the rails and the nuclear “ghost train” with Scalpel missiles set off for last way, even the strongest men could not stand it: tears rolled from the eyes of both gray-haired designers and rocket officers. They said goodbye to a unique weapon, which in many combat characteristics surpassed everything that was available and even planned to be put into service in the near future.
Everyone understood what it was unique weapon in the mid-90s it became hostage to the political agreements of the country's leadership with Washington. And not selfish. Apparently, this is why each new stage of the destruction of the BZHRK strangely coincided with the next tranche of a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
There were also a number of objective reasons for the abandonment of the BZHRK. In particular, when Moscow and Kyiv “fled up” in 1991, this immediately hit Russian nuclear power hard. Almost all of us nuclear missiles During the Soviet era, they were made in Ukraine under the leadership of academicians Yangel and Utkin. Of the 20 types then in service, 12 were designed in Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and produced there, at the Yuzhmash plant. BZHRK was also made in the Ukrainian Pavlograd.
But each time it became more and more difficult to negotiate with the developers from Nezalezhnaya to extend their service life or modernize them. As a result of all these circumstances, our generals had to report with a sour face to the country’s leadership how “in accordance with the planned reduction of the Strategic Missile Forces, another BZHRK has been removed from combat duty.”
But what to do: politicians promised - the military is forced to fulfill. At the same time, they understood perfectly well: if we cut and remove missiles from combat duty due to old age at the same pace as in the late 90s, then in just five years, instead of the existing 150 Voyevods, we will not have any of these heavy missiles left. And then no light Topols will make any difference - and at that time there were only about 40 of them. For the American missile defense system this is nothing.
For this reason, as soon as Yeltsin vacated the Kremlin office, a number of people from the country’s military leadership, at the request of the rocket scientists, began to prove to the new president the need to create a nuclear complex similar to the BZHRK. And when it became finally clear that the United States was not going to abandon its plans to create its own missile defense system under any circumstances, work on the creation of this complex actually began.
And now, in the very near future, the States will again receive their former headache, now in the form of a new generation BZHRK called “Barguzin”. Moreover, as the rocket scientists say, these will be ultra-modern rockets in which all the shortcomings of the Scalpel have been eliminated.
“Barguzin” is the main trump card against US missile defense
The main disadvantage noted by opponents of the BZHRK was the accelerated wear and tear of the railway tracks along which it moved. They had to be repaired frequently, over which the military and railway workers had eternal disputes. The reason for this was the heavy missiles - weighing 105 tons. They did not fit in one car - they had to be placed in two, reinforcing the wheel pairs on them.
Today, when issues of profit and commerce have come to the fore, Russian Railways are probably not ready, as it was before, to infringe on their interests for the sake of the defense of the country, and also to bear the costs of repairing the roadway in the event that a decision is made that their roads will again be used. BZHRK should operate. It is the commercial reason, according to some experts, that today could become an obstacle to the final decision to adopt them into service.
However, this problem has now been resolved. The fact is that the new BZHRKs will no longer have heavy missiles. The complexes are armed with lighter RS-24 missiles, which are used in the Yars complexes, and therefore the weight of the car is comparable to the usual one, which makes it possible to achieve ideal camouflage of the combat personnel.
True, RS-24s have only four warheads, while older missiles had a dozen of them. But here we must take into account that the Barguzin itself does not carry three missiles, as it was before, but twice as many. This, of course, is the same - 24 versus 30. But we should not forget that Yars are practically the most modern development and their probability of overcoming missile defense is much higher than that of their predecessors. The navigation system has also been updated: now there is no need to set target coordinates in advance, everything can be changed quickly.
In a day, such a mobile complex can cover up to 1,000 kilometers, plying along any railway lines in the country, indistinguishable from a regular train with refrigerated cars. Autonomy time is a month. There is no doubt that the new group of BZHRK will be a much more effective response to the US missile defense system than even the deployment of our Iskander operational-tactical missiles, which are so feared in the West, near the borders of Europe.
There is also no doubt that the Americans will clearly not like the idea of BZHRK (although theoretically their creation will not violate the latest Russian-American agreements). BZHRK at one time formed the basis of the retaliatory strike force in the Strategic Missile Forces, since they had increased survivability and were very likely to survive after the enemy delivered the first strike. The United States feared him no less than the legendary “Satan,” since the BZHRK was a real factor in inevitable retribution.
By 2020, it is planned to put into service five regiments of the Barguzin BZHRK - that’s 120 warheads, respectively. Apparently, the BZHRK will become the strongest argument, in fact, our main trump card in the dispute with the Americans regarding the advisability of deploying a global missile defense system.
Russian BZHRK / Photo: artyushenkooleg.ru
In Russia, a new nuclear weapon is preparing for the final stage of testing - the combat railway missile system (BZHRK), created on the basis of its predecessor, (SS-24 Scalpel), which was on combat duty from 1987 to 2005 and was withdrawn from service by agreement with USA from 1993. What forced Russia to return to creating these weapons again?
When the Americans once again confirmed the deployment of their missile defense facilities in Europe in 2012, Russian President Vladimir Putin quite harshly formulated Russia’s response to this. He officially stated that the creation of an American missile defense system actually “resets our nuclear missile potential” and announced that our response would be “the development of strike nuclear missile systems.”
One of these complexes was the Barguzin BZHRK, which the American military especially did not like, causing them serious concern, since its adoption into service makes the presence of a US missile defense system as such practically useless.
Predecessor of "Bargruzin" "Well done"
The BZHRK was already in service with the Strategic Missile Forces until 2005. Its main developer in the USSR was the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Ukraine). The only manufacturer of rockets is the Pavlograd Mechanical Plant. Tests of the BZHRK with the RT-23UTTKh "Molodets" missile (according to NATO classification - SS-24 Scalpel) in the railway version began in February 1985 and were completed by 1987. BZHRKs looked like ordinary trains consisting of refrigerated, postal and luggage cars, and even passenger cars.
Inside each train there were three launchers with Molodets solid-propellant missiles, as well as their entire support system with a command post and combat crews. The first BZHRK was put on combat duty in 1987 in Kostroma. In 1988, five regiments were deployed (a total of 15 launchers), and by 1991, three missile divisions were deployed: near Kostroma, Perm and Krasnoyarsk - each consisting of four missile regiments (a total of 12 BZHRK trains).
Each train consisted of several cars. One carriage is a command post, the other three – with an opening roof – are launchers with missiles. Moreover, the missiles could be launched both from planned stops and from any point along the route. To do this, the train was stopped, a special device was used to move the contact suspension of electrical wires to the sides, the launch container was placed in a vertical position, and the rocket was launched.
The complexes stood at a distance of about four kilometers from each other in permanent shelters. Within a radius of 1,500 kilometers from their bases, together with railway workers, work was carried out to strengthen the track: heavier rails were laid, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete ones, embankments were filled with denser crushed stone.
Only professionals could distinguish the BZHRK from ordinary freight trains, thousands of them plying across the expanses of Russia (the launch modules with the rocket had eight wheel pairs, the rest of the support cars had four each). The train could cover about 1,200 kilometers in one day. Its combat patrol time was 21 days (thanks to the reserves on board, it could operate autonomously for up to 28 days).
The BZHRK was given great importance, even the officers who served on these trains had ranks higher than their colleagues in similar positions in the mine complexes.
Soviet BZHRK–
shock for Washington
The rocket scientists tell either a legend or a true story that the Americans themselves allegedly pushed our designers to create the BZHRK. They say that one day our intelligence received information that the United States was working on creating a railway complex that would be able to move through underground tunnels and, if necessary, emerge from the ground at certain points in order to unexpectedly launch a strategic missile for the enemy.
The scouts' report even included photographs of this train. Apparently, these data made a strong impression on the Soviet leadership, since it was immediately decided to create something similar. But our engineers approached this issue more creatively. They decided: why drive trains underground? You can put them on regular railways, disguised as freight trains. It will be simpler, cheaper and more effective.
Later, however, it turned out that the Americans conducted special studies that showed that in their conditions, BZHRKs would not be effective enough. They simply slipped misinformation to us in order to once again shake up the Soviet budget, forcing us, as it seemed to them then, into useless spending, and the photo was taken from a small full-scale model.
Combat railway missile system "Barguzin" / Image: 42.tut.by
But by the time all this became clear, it was too late for Soviet engineers to work back. They, and not only in the drawings, have already created a new nuclear weapon with an individually targeted missile, a range of ten thousand kilometers with ten warheads with a capacity of 0.43 Mt and a serious set of means to overcome missile defense.
In Washington, this news caused a real shock. Still would! How do you determine which of the “freight trains” to destroy in the event of a nuclear strike? If you shoot at everyone at once, there won’t be enough nuclear warheads. Therefore, in order to track the movement of these trains, which easily escaped the field of view of tracking systems, the Americans had to almost constantly keep a constellation of 18 spy satellites over Russia, which was very costly for them. Especially considering that US intelligence services have never been able to identify a BZHRK along the patrol route.
Therefore, as soon as the political situation allowed it in the early 90s, the United States immediately tried to get rid of this headache. At first, they persuaded the Russian authorities not to allow the BZHRKs to travel around the country, but to remain laid up. This allowed them to constantly keep only three or four spy satellites over Russia instead of 16–18. And then they persuaded our politicians to completely destroy the BZHRK. They officially agreed under the pretext of the alleged “expiration of the warranty period for their operation.”
How to cut "Scalpels"
The last combat train was sent for melting down in 2005. Eyewitnesses said that when, in the twilight of the night, the wheels of the cars clattered on the rails and the nuclear “ghost train” with Scalpel missiles set off on its final journey, even the strongest men could not stand it: tears rolled from the eyes of both gray-haired designers and rocket officers . They said goodbye to a unique weapon, which in many combat characteristics surpassed everything that was available and even planned to be put into service in the near future.
Everyone understood that in the mid-90s this unique weapon became hostage to the political agreements of the country’s leadership with Washington. And not selfish. Apparently, this is why each new stage of the destruction of the BZHRK strangely coincided with the next tranche of a loan from the International Monetary Fund.
There were also a number of objective reasons for the abandonment of the BZHRK. In particular, when Moscow and Kyiv “fled up” in 1991, this immediately hit Russian nuclear power hard. Almost all of our nuclear missiles during the Soviet era were made in Ukraine under the leadership of academicians Yangel and Utkin. Of the 20 types then in service, 12 were designed in Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, and produced there, at the Yuzhmash plant. BZHRK was also made in the Ukrainian Pavlograd.
But each time it became more and more difficult to negotiate with the developers from Nezalezhnaya to extend their service life or modernize them. As a result of all these circumstances, our generals had to report with a sour face to the country’s leadership how “in accordance with the planned reduction of the Strategic Missile Forces, another BZHRK has been removed from combat duty.”
But what to do: politicians promised - the military is forced to fulfill. At the same time, they understood perfectly well: if we cut and remove missiles from combat duty due to old age at the same pace as in the late 90s, then in just five years, instead of the existing 150 Voyevods, we will not have any of these heavy missiles left. And then no light Topols will make any difference - and at that time there were only about 40 of them. For the American missile defense system this is nothing.
For this reason, as soon as Yeltsin vacated the Kremlin office, a number of people from the country’s military leadership, at the request of the rocket scientists, began to prove to the new president the need to create a nuclear complex similar to the BZHRK. And when it became finally clear that the United States was not going to abandon its plans to create its own missile defense system under any circumstances, work on the creation of this complex actually began.
And now, in the very near future, the States will again receive their previous headache, now in the form of a new generation BZHRK called “Barguzin”. Moreover, as the rocket scientists say, these will be ultra-modern rockets in which all the shortcomings of the Scalpel have been eliminated.
"Barguzin"–
the main trump card against US missile defense
The main disadvantage noted by opponents of the BZHRK was the accelerated wear and tear of the railway tracks along which it moved. They had to be repaired frequently, over which the military and railway workers had eternal disputes. The reason for this was the heavy missiles - weighing 105 tons. They did not fit in one car - they had to be placed in two, reinforcing the wheel pairs on them.
Today, when issues of profit and commerce have come to the fore, Russian Railways are probably not ready, as it was before, to infringe on their interests for the sake of the defense of the country, and also to bear the costs of repairing the roadway in the event that a decision is made that their roads will again be used. BZHRK should operate. It is the commercial reason, according to some experts, that today could become an obstacle to the final decision to adopt them into service.
However, this problem has now been resolved. The fact is that the new BZHRKs will no longer have heavy missiles. The complexes are armed with lighter missiles, which are used in the complexes, and therefore the weight of the carriage is comparable to the usual one, which makes it possible to achieve ideal camouflage of the combat personnel.
True, RS-24s have only four warheads, while older missiles had a dozen of them. But here we must take into account that the Barguzin itself does not carry three missiles, as it was before, but twice as many. This, of course, is the same - 24 versus 30. But we should not forget that Yars are practically the most modern development and their probability of overcoming missile defense is much higher than that of their predecessors. The navigation system has also been updated: now there is no need to set target coordinates in advance, everything can be changed quickly.
In a day, such a mobile complex can cover up to 1,000 kilometers, plying along any railway lines in the country, indistinguishable from a regular train with refrigerated cars. Autonomy time is a month. There is no doubt that the new group of BZHRK will be a much more effective response to the US missile defense system than even the deployment of our operational-tactical missiles near the borders of Europe, which are so feared in the West.
There is also no doubt that the Americans will clearly not like the idea of BZHRK (although theoretically their creation will not violate the latest Russian-American agreements). BZHRK at one time formed the basis of the retaliatory strike force in the Strategic Missile Forces, since they had increased survivability and were very likely to survive after the enemy delivered the first strike. The United States feared him no less than the legendary “Satan,” since the BZHRK was a real factor in inevitable retribution.
By 2020, it is planned to put into service five regiments of the Barguzin BZHRK - that’s 120 warheads, respectively. Apparently, the BZHRK will become the strongest argument, in fact, our main trump card in the dispute with the Americans regarding the advisability of deploying a global missile defense system.
The world community is in shock: oh-oh, this and that Russia for some reason is restoring its combat railway missile systems (BZHRK). Hopeless totalitarianism and the clampdown on freedom.
Just think, NATO has only advanced a little to the East - this is only for the benefit of democracy. Just think, the United States has withdrawn from the ABM Treaty and is building “defensive sites” for anti-missiles in Poland and Romania - they are exclusively against the missiles of the North Koreans and Iranians, which pose a threat to the “Free World”. Hello, Russia, no one and nothing threatens you, stop arming yourself!
– Why is Russia arming itself when everything in the world is so good and wonderful? Isn't it better to work together with Western countries to build a brave new world where there is no place for weapons of mass destruction?
– Russia has many nuclear submarines. Why does she also need some kind of “nuclear train”? These Russians have a desire to arm themselves to the teeth in their genes. They want war. Everything is bad for them, and that’s why they want to drag the entire West with them to the grave!
- “Atomic train”? This is inhumane! Russia does not think about its passengers on board railway transport! This means that now any Russian passenger train becomes a legitimate target. Russians would be atomic bombs attached to passenger air and sea liners...
- It's a bluff. Russian economy lies in ruins. The Russians will now build “nuclear trains” with their last money, and then what will they eat? Raw uranium? Poor bastards...
– Russia is sending a signal: don’t interfere with it and its allies. Why did the West begin to destroy Ukraine? Do you want a new war like in Korea? I hope our military and politicians will understand everything correctly.
What bothered the inhabitants of the well-fed democratic pigsty so much?
There is not so much a legend, but unconfirmed information from authoritative sources that the topic of the BZHRK Soviet Union thrown by the USA. Once upon a time in America, a railway complex was developed for the hidden transportation and launch of ballistic missiles, but the luminous Jedi did not pull off the project, wasting billions of money on it. In any case, there is not a single BZHRK in the US armed forces and is not expected.
However, according to weapons historians, the Americans are not pioneers in this matter. For the first time, the gloomy Teutonic geniuses of the Third Reich unsuccessfully tried to hoist and launch a V-2 ballistic missile onto a railway platform.
In the 50s in the USSR, the theme of railway launch pads for ballistic missiles was developed by such famous designers as Lavochkin, Korolev, Yangel, but their work at that time was not crowned with success.
So the “American partners” decided to give the Soviet comrades a pretty pig in a beautiful package: “America is building a “nuclear train,” but are you weak, Reds?”
Whether this is true or not, only the scientific and design thought of the USSR coped with the task thanks to the design team under the leadership of Academician Alexei Utkin. The problem was solved thanks to the advent of solid fuel rockets. R&D on the Molodets project began in the mid-60s, but the Molodets BZHRK was born and went on combat duty only in 1987. And immediately turned into a headache, a pain in the ass, a “terror that flies on the wings of the night” for the Pentagon.
Judge for yourself. Each “Molodets” received a cache of three Scalpel RT-23 UTTH ballistic missiles. Each missile had a range of 10 thousand km and carried a “gift” of 10 individually targetable multiple warheads with a nuclear charge of 430 kilotons of TNT. As many as 900 Hiroshima for the adversary. In total, by the beginning of the 90s, 12 BZHRKs and an unknown number of fake “well done” ones were built.
Externally, the composition of the “nuclear train” was no different from thousands of other trains traveling up and down the developed railway network of the USSR. A typical set of “Molodets” cars looked like a cargo and passenger train: mail cars, passenger cars and refrigerators. True, the cars carrying rockets had eight instead of four wheel pairs, and the train itself was pulled by three mainline diesel locomotives, but the number of wheels cannot be seen from the satellite, and heavy-duty trains in the USSR were hauled by three-section locomotives - go and figure out which train is where passed.
And if we add here numerous rock tunnels and shelters created specifically for the BZHRK, in which no devil will find them, and an unknown number of “dummy” trains created to distract the attention of those who are too curious...
In the terms of Soviet railway workers, the BZHRK was called “train number zero.”
As the Americans themselves admitted, to track Soviet BZHRKs for their and NATO military intelligence was an impossible task. Even despite the fact that just for the sake of detecting and monitoring the “well done”, the Pentagon launched an entire satellite constellation into orbit.
In the late 80s, when the “well done” were scurrying around the wide expanses of our country, American intelligence launched an operation to technically detect our BZHRKs. Under the guise of commercial cargo, a standard cargo container stuffed with spy equipment was delivered to Vladivostok, en route to Sweden. The cunning container was recognized in time by Soviet counterintelligence and, according to some reports, safely reached its destination. But the Pentagon didn’t get anything interesting from this “big walk.” Because it doesn't matter.
The reliability of the “Molodets” is evidenced by the “Shine” tests carried out in 1991 (an experiment on resistance to EMP) and “Shift” - an imitation of a nearby kiloton-power explosion. At the training ground in Plesetsk, 650 meters from the BZHRK, a 20-meter pyramid of 100 thousand anti-tank mines taken from the GDR was laid out and exploded. The monstrous explosion tore out a crater 80 meters in diameter in the ground, the sound pressure level in the residential compartments of the BZHRK reached the pain threshold of 150 dB. One of the three launchers showed a cancellation of readiness, but after rebooting the on-board computer, it launched the rocket in normal mode.
In 1993, under the START-2 treaty, all BZHRKs were subject to destruction. Moreover, the destruction of the “well done” and the ban on the development of similar complexes was an indispensable condition of the American side when signing the agreement. Until 2007, 10 trains were destroyed, and 2 became museum exhibits. It must be said that “our American partners” did not even hide their joy about this.
It is interesting that in the summer of 1993, at the dead end of the Kievsky railway station in Moscow, there was a train, in the coupling of which there was one “cunning” BZHRK car (possibly decommissioned), filled with Polish-made soft drinks, which an enterprising guard sold to everyone wholesale and retail.
With the rise of neocons to power in the United States, America, after the September 11 terrorist attacks, was overwhelmed by paranoia, which turned into a new expansion and arms race.
In response to the deployment by the Americans of a global missile defense system, the Russian leadership in 2013 decided to recreate the BZHRK, taking into account modern scientific and technical achievements. “Molodets” should be replaced by “Barguzin” in 2020. The restriction was lifted by the signing of the START-3 treaty with Obama, who naively believed that Russia would be unable to resurrect “Molodets.” After all, Scalpel missiles were made by Ukraine.
As the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General Sergei Karakaev, clarifies, the Barguzin was initially planned to be put into operation in 2019, but due to the deterioration of the financial situation, the schedule was shifted by a year. IN this moment The new BZHRK is at the technical documentation stage. In 2017, Vladimir Putin will hear a report on the topic and consider the production schedule of Barguzins by the military industry.
According to the organizational structure, each “rocket train” will be equivalent to a regiment, five trains will form a division.
If the railway part of Barguzin is at the project stage, then everything with the missile part has long been in perfect order. In all respects, “Barguzin” will surpass its older brother “Molodets”. The new BZHRK will receive not three, but six of the latest RS-24 Yars (Yars-M) ICBMs with a mortar launch and a flight range of 11 thousand km. True, the Yars warhead contains only four warheads of 250 kilotons each, but this is enough to incinerate some Rhode Island if necessary.
Judging by the incoming information, Barguzin, in addition to more missile weapons, will be equipped with the latest camouflage equipment and electronic warfare system. Considering that Yars missiles are two times lighter than scalpels, cars with missile launchers inside will no longer need eight wheel pairs. Moreover, instead of coupling three mainline diesel locomotives, Barguzin will only need one. This is what new technologies mean. We can also add here that the Barguzin can travel 2,500 km from the departure station per day, so look for winds in the field. The autonomy of the complex is 30 days, the reaction time to the General Staff command to launch missiles is 3 minutes.
Why did Russia need BZHRKs, another inquisitive reader may ask. After all, there are silo-based ICBMs, Topol-M mobile systems, nuclear submarines, and finally. The problem is that the location of the missile silos is well known to the enemy, as are the routes of the mobile missile systems. Detection of Russian missile submarines poses a serious problem for them, even despite the much-touted ocean-going acoustic detection system SOSUS, but Russia has few nuclear submarines. Much less than there were in the USSR. Therefore, BZHRKs, with their volatility and elusiveness, introduce a serious factor of unpredictability into NATO plans. And although information about the Barguzin has been coming for quite some time, the “partners” became seriously concerned after the report of a successful test of the Barguzin rocket launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
And this is good. Because the factor of unpredictability makes you doubt your own abilities and, as a result, leads to sobering up and a desire to negotiate.
Among the variety of strategic launch systems in service with the leading countries of the world, the combat complex (abbreviated BZHRK) is experiencing a rebirth these days. There are a number of reasons that contribute to this, but before we touch on them, let’s consider what this development of the modern defense industry is. Along the way, we will try to find out what happened to the nuclear trains of past years.
What is BZHRK?
First of all, this is a train, the carriages of which accommodate not passengers hurrying on vacation or a business trip, and not cargo expected in different parts of the country, but deadly missiles, equipped with nuclear warheads. Their number varies depending on the size of the complex.
However, there are also passengers - these are technical personnel servicing the combat railway missile system, as well as units whose task is to protect it. Some of the cars are designed to accommodate all kinds of technological and other systems for successfully launching missiles and hitting targets anywhere in the world.
Since such a train, filled with a deadly cargo, is akin to a warship, it is often given a name, which is then used as a proper name. For example, 15P961 “Well done.” If the first part of the name is not quite easy to pronounce, and is not immediately remembered, then the second is quite euphonious and familiar to the ear. I even want to add the word “kind” to it, but in relation to a complex capable of destroying an average European state in a matter of minutes, this adjective is hardly acceptable.
A dozen “Well done” guarding the Motherland
There were twelve such dashing “Well done” people in our country between 1987 and 1994. They were all on alert strategic purpose and, in addition to the main name, they had one more name, found only in technical documentation - RT 23 UTTH. Over the following years, one after another they were removed from service and dismantled, so that by 2007 only two of their glorious squad remained, placed in a museum Armed Forces Russia.
By the way, RT 23 UTTH became the only complex in the Soviet Union launched into mass production. The development of such combat systems was carried out over several decades, but only in the eighties were they brought to the stage that made it possible to put them into service. To maintain secrecy, trains of this type were given symbol"Train number zero."
American developments in the same area
It is known that during the Cold War, foreign, in particular American, designers also worked on creating trains carrying atomic death in their carriages. As a result of successful activities Soviet intelligence, as well as the shroud of secrecy that surrounded everything that was connected with the defense industry, in those years the general reader was much more aware of their developments than the achievements of domestic gunsmiths.
What did our valiant Stirlitz soldiers report in their reports? Thanks to them, it is known that in the early sixties, the first solid-fuel intercontinental aircraft, called “Minuteman,” appeared in the United States. Compared to their predecessors who worked for liquid fuel, it had a number of significant advantages. First of all, there was no need for pre-start refueling; in addition, its resistance to shaking and vibration, which inevitably arose during transportation, was significantly increased.
This made it possible to carry out combat launches of missiles directly from moving railway platforms, and make them virtually invulnerable in the event of war. The only difficulty was that the missiles could launch only in strictly defined, specially prepared places, since their guidance system was tied to pre-calculated coordinates.
America in the rays of the “Big Star”
A significant breakthrough that made it possible to create a train with nuclear missiles in the United States was a large-scale operation carried out in 1961 and carried out under the secret name “Big Star”. As part of this event, trains, which were prototypes of the future missile system, moved along the entire network of railways operating in the country.
The purpose of the exercise was to test their mobility and the possibility of maximum dispersion throughout the United States. Upon completion of the operation, its results were summarized, and on their basis a train was designed, the nuclear arsenal of which consisted of five Minuteman missiles.
Abandonment of an already completed project
However, this development was not destined to enter service. It was originally assumed that in 1962 the country's defense industry would produce thirty such trains, armed with a total of one hundred and fifty missiles. But upon completion of the design work, the cost of the project was considered prohibitively high, and as a result it was abandoned.
At that time, silo launchers of solid fuel Minutemen were considered more effective, and they were preferred. Their undeniable advantage was their low cost, as well as fairly reliable protection from Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, which in those years did not have the accuracy required to destroy them.
As a result, the project, on which American engineers worked throughout 1961, was closed, and the trains already created on its basis were used to transport the same “Minutemen” from the workshops of manufacturers’ factories to the bases where they were deployed in mines.
Recent developments undertaken in the USA
A new impetus for the creation in America of trains capable of carrying nuclear weapons, was the appearance in 1986 of the new generation heavy intercontinental missile LGM-118A, also known by its more popular name short name MX.
By this time, the destructive power had increased significantly Soviet missiles, designed to destroy enemy launchers. In this regard, special attention was paid to the issue of security of MX placement.
After much debate between supporters of traditional silo deployment and their opponents, a compromise was reached, as a result of which fifty missiles were placed in silos, and the same number on platforms of a new composition specially prepared for this purpose.
However, this development also had no future. In the early nineties, thanks to the democratic transformations that took place in our country, cold war ended, and the program to create railway nuclear complexes, having lost its relevance, was closed. Currently, such developments are not underway and, apparently, are not planned for the coming years.
New development of Yuzhnoye SDO
However, let's return to our homeland. Now it is no longer a military secret that the first nuclear train of the USSR began to be created in accordance with the order of the Ministry of Defense, signed in January 1969. The development of this unique project was entrusted to the Yuzhnoye design bureau, which then employed two remarkable Soviet scientists - academicians, siblings Alexey Fedorovich and Oni, who headed the work on the new project.
According to the general plan, the 15P961 “Molodets BZHRK” (combat railway missile system) they created was intended to strike back at the enemy, since its mobility and increased survivability made it possible to hope that it would be able to survive in the event of a surprise nuclear attack by the enemy. The only place, where the rockets necessary for its equipment were produced, was the Mechanical Plant in Pavlograd. This most important strategic facility was hidden in those years under the faceless sign of the Yuzhmash Production Association.
Difficulties that arose on the way of developers
In his memoirs, V.F. Utkin wrote that the task assigned to them carried enormous difficulties. They consisted mainly in the fact that the complex had to move along ordinary railway tracks, along with other trains, and yet the weight of even one missile along with its launcher was one hundred and fifty tons.
The creators of the project faced a lot of problems that seemed insoluble at first glance. For example, how to place a rocket in a railway car and how to give it a vertical position at the right time? How to ensure safety during transportation when it comes to a nuclear charge? Will standard rails, railway embankments and bridges withstand the enormous load created by the passage of a train? Finally, will the train hold up in the moment? The designers had to find comprehensive and unambiguous answers to all these and many other questions.
Ghost trains and those who drove them
The very next year, the train, whose nuclear arsenal consisted of missiles of the 15Zh61 type, was tested in various climatic regions of the country - from deserts Central Asia to polar latitudes. Eighteen times he went out onto the country's railways, covering a total of half a million kilometers and performing combat launches of his rockets at the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
Following the first train, designated number zero in the schedule, its twins also appeared. As the tests passed, each such ghost train was put on combat duty in one of the country's missile regiments. The personnel serving it consisted of seventy military personnel.
Civilians were not allowed. Even the seats of the drivers and their assistants were occupied by warrant officers and officers specially trained to drive the train. The nuclear charge of the missiles was under the constant supervision of specialists. By the beginning of 1991, the USSR already had three missile divisions armed with railway missile systems.
They formed a powerful nuclear fist, capable, if necessary, of crushing any enemy. Suffice it to say that each such division had twelve trains carrying nuclear missiles. In those years, the USSR Ministry of Defense did a huge amount of work. Within a radius of one and a half thousand kilometers from the locations of the regiments, standard railway rails were replaced with heavier ones that could withstand a missile train, the nuclear cargo of which required additional precautions.
Temporary suspension of BZHRK programs
Significant changes to the patrol routes of the BZHRK were made after the meeting between M. S. Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, which took place in 1991. Since that time, according to the agreement reached, not a single ghost train has left its permanent location, remaining, nevertheless, in service as a stationary combat unit. As a result of a series of agreements signed in subsequent years, Russia was obliged to remove from service all missiles based on railway trains, thereby abandoning this type of strategic weapons.
"Barguzin" (BZHRK)
However, it is at least premature to talk about Russia’s complete abandonment of missile systems installed on trains. At the end of 2013, information appeared in the media that, as a response to a number of American weapons programs, work on the creation of missile-carrying trains was being resumed in our country.
In particular, they discussed a new development made on an advanced technological basis, called “Barguzin” (BZHRK). In all its parameters and intended purpose, it does not fall under the list of restrictions established international treaty START-3, and therefore its production does not conflict with international law.
According to available data, the missile, carrying a nuclear charge and equipped with a multiple warhead, is planned to be placed in a carriage disguised as a standard twenty-four meter long railway refrigerator.
The Barguzin complex is supposed to be armed with Yars-type missiles, previously based on tractors. The advantage of railway deployment in this case is quite obvious. If ground installations are easily detected from space, then this BZHRK system is indistinguishable from an ordinary freight train even upon closer inspection. In addition, moving a railway missile system is several times cheaper than moving a ground missile system based on various types of tractors.
Advantages and disadvantages of BZHRK
Concluding the conversation about railway missile systems, it is appropriate to dwell on the generally recognized advantages and disadvantages of this type of weapon. Among its undeniable advantages, experts note the high mobility of the vehicle, which is capable of covering up to a thousand kilometers per day, changing its location, which is many times greater than the similar performance of tractors. In addition, one should take into account the high carrying capacity of the train, capable of transporting hundreds of tons at a time.
But we cannot discount some of their inherent disadvantages. Among them, we should highlight the difficulty of camouflaging a train, caused by the peculiarities of its configuration, which simplifies the detection of the train using modern satellite reconnaissance tools. In addition, compared to launch silos, the train is less protected from the effects of a blast wave. When nuclear explosion produced anywhere in the vicinity, it may be damaged or knocked over.
And, finally, a significant disadvantage of using rolling stock as a carrier of missile systems is the inevitable wear and tear of the railway track in such cases, which prevents the further operation of both the BZHRK themselves and conventional trains. However modern technologies make it possible to successfully solve most of the listed problems, and thereby open up the prospect of further development and modernization of missile-carrying trains.
