Combat railway missile system "scalpel". Railway missile systems - reliable protection of Russia Russian nuclear train

20.10.2019

BZHRK on the patrol route / Photo: Press Service of the Strategic Missile Forces

In 2020, the Russian armed forces will receive a new generation of trains with launchers ballistic missiles. The Barguzin combat missile railway system will be armed with six RS-24 Yars missiles against three Scalpel ICBMs from its predecessor, the Molodets BZHRK.

It will be impossible to detect the train - in addition to modern means camouflage, it will be equipped with systems electronic warfare and other devices that increase secrecy. The BZHRK divisional set will consist of five trains, each of which will be equated to a regiment.

Former Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces Viktor Yesin / Photo: Press Service of the Strategic Missile Forces

"The creation of the Barguzin is Russia's response to the deployment by the Americans of a global missile defense system," Viktor Esin, former head of the Strategic Missile Forces Main Staff, said.

Former Commander of the Rocket Forces strategic purpose Colonel General Sergey Karakaev spoke about the adoption of the Barguzin into service in 2019, however, the timing of the work on the creation of the train was shifted by a year due to the difficult financial situation. The draft design of the BZHRK has been created, design documentation is being developed. In 2017, Vladimir Putin will be presented with a detailed report on the topic and a plan for the deployment of missile trains.

The Barguzin BZHRK will be armed with six RS-24 Yars missiles against three Scalpel ICBMs from its predecessor, the Molodets BZHRK / Image: oko-planet.su

"The new BZHRK will significantly surpass its predecessor, Molodets, in terms of accuracy, missile range and other characteristics. This will allow this complex to be in combat for many years, at least until 2040. composition of the Strategic Missile Forces. Thus, the troops are returning to a three-species grouping containing mine, mobile and railway-based complexes," S. Karakaev said.

Sergei Karakaev / Photo: Press Service of the Strategic Missile Forces

Of the 12 Soviet missile trains, 10 were destroyed in accordance with the START-2 treaty, two were transferred to museums. They were replaced by Topol-M mobile ground missile systems, which are significantly inferior to trains in terms of mobility and invulnerability. At the same time, it is not difficult to restore the BZHRK system: unique technical solutions and design developments, ground infrastructure, including rocky tunnels, where no intelligence will find a train and a nuclear strike will not reach, have been preserved.

The elusive "well done"

According to legend, the idea to use trains to launch ballistic missiles was thrown to the Soviet Union by the Americans. After the United States considered the creation of railway missile systems to be an expensive, difficult and impractical project, the CIA proposed to misinform Soviet intelligence: they say, in America such trains are being created - and let the Russians swell billions into utopia.

The operation was carried out, but its result was unexpected - the Soviet Union created the Molodets missile trains, which immediately became a headache for the Pentagon. To track them, a constellation of satellites was put into orbit, and in the late 80s - when the BZHRK had already entered the routes - a container with tracking equipment was sent from Vladivostok to Sweden by rail under the guise of commercial cargo. Soviet counterintelligence officers quickly "figured out" the container and removed it from the train. American General Colin Powell once admitted to the creator of the BZHRK, Academician Alexei Utkin: "Looking for your rocket trains is like a needle in a haystack."

Photo: vk.com

Indeed, the BZHRK, which went on combat duty, instantly disappeared among the thousands of trains traveling along the extensive railway network Soviet Union. Outwardly, "Molodets" was disguised as the usual mixed train: passenger cars, mail, silver refrigerators.

True, some cars had not four pairs of wheels, but eight - but you can’t count them from a satellite. The BZHRK was set in motion by three diesel locomotives. To keep this from being obvious, in the late 1980s, large freight trains began to be driven by three-section locomotives. By 1994, 12 BZHRKs were in service with three missiles each.

folding rocket

During the creation of "Molodets" a lot of complex problems had to be solved. The length of the car with the launcher should not exceed 24 meters - otherwise it will not fit into the railway infrastructure. Such short ballistic missiles were not made in the USSR. The most compact ICBM weighs over 100 tons. How to make sure that the composition with three launchers does not crush the railway tracks? How to save a train from the hellish flames of a launching rocket? Over the rails contact network - how to get around it? And this is not all the questions that arose before the designers.

The creation of the BZHRK was carried out by the famous academic brothers Alexei and Vladimir Utkin. The first one made a train, the second one made a rocket for it. For the first time in the USSR, an ICBM was made solid-propellant, with a multiple reentry vehicle. The RT-23 (according to NATO classification SS-24 Scalpel) consisted of three stages and threw 10 thermonuclear warheads with a capacity of 500 kilotons over 11 thousand kilometers. In order for the "Scalpel" to fit in a railway car, the nozzles and fairing were made retractable.

Retractable rocket nozzles / Photo: vk.com

While Vladimir Utkin was inventing a folding rocket, his brother Alexei was conjuring over a sliding train. The design bureau of special engineering designed a launcher with a carrying capacity of 135 tons on four biaxial bogies. Part of its gravity was transferred to neighboring cars. The car was disguised as a refrigerator with fake sliding doors on the sides. In fact, the roof opened, and powerful hydraulic jacks came out from under the bottom, resting against concrete slabs on the sides of the railway track. The BZHRK was equipped with unique retractable devices that diverted the contact wire to the side. In addition, the area where the launch took place was de-energized.

The launch of the rocket was mortar: the powder charge threw the Scalpel out of the launch container to a height of 20 meters, the corrective charge diverted the nozzles away from the train, the first stage engine turned on and with a smoke trail characteristic of solid fuel rockets SS-24 went into the sky. Invisible and invulnerable By 1991, three missile divisions with 12 BZHRK were deployed: in the Krasnoyarsk Territory, Kostroma and Perm Regions. Within a radius of 1500 kilometers from the places of deployment of the connections, the railway track was modernized: wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete, heavy rails were laid, embankments were reinforced with denser gravel.

Out of combat duty, the BZHRK were in shelter. Then they advanced to a certain point of the railway network and were divided into three. The locomotives took the launchers to the launch sites - usually they were located around the point in a triangle. Each train included a fuel tank (also disguised as a refrigerator) and a piping system that allowed locomotives to be refueled on the go. There were also sleeping cars for calculation, supplies of water and food. The autonomy of the rocket train was 28 days.

Having worked out the launch of missiles at one point, the train went to the next - there were more than 200 of them in the Soviet Union. In a day, the BZHRK could travel over a thousand kilometers. For reasons of secrecy, routes were laid past large stations, and if it was impossible to bypass them, rocket trains passed them without stopping and at dawn, when there were fewer people. The railway workers called the BZHRK "train number zero."

Since the rocket train was planned as a retaliatory weapon, in 1991 the "Shine" experiments - on the effects of electromagnetic radiation - and "Shift" were carried out. The latter simulated a nuclear explosion of kiloton power. At the training ground in Plesetsk, 650 meters from the BZHRK, 100 thousand anti-tank mines were detonated, taken out of warehouses in East Germany and laid in a 20-meter pyramid. At the site of the explosion, a funnel with a diameter of 80 meters formed, the sound pressure level in the habitable compartments of the BZHRK reached pain threshold(150 decibels). One of the launchers showed deactivation, but after rebooting the onboard computer system, it launched a rocket.

The BZHRK, or Barguzin combat railway missile system, is a new generation of trains armed with ballistic missiles. Developed in the Russian Federation. In 2020, it is planned to be adopted.

What is a nuclear train? What was the first generation of rocket trains in the USSR? Why did the US fail to create a ghost train? You will get answers to these and many other questions in this article.

What is "BZHRK"?

BZHRK (or ghost train) is a military railway strategic missile system. The complex is located on the basis of a railway train consisting of a diesel locomotive and freight cars. Outside is no different from the usual freight trains, which are plying in Russia by the thousands. However, it has a very difficult filling. Inside are intercontinental missiles, command posts, technical systems services, technological modules that ensure the functioning of the complex and the life personnel. At the same time, the train is autonomous.

The BZHRK was created primarily as the main strike power for delivering retaliatory nuclear strike against a potential enemy, therefore, it had the qualities of mobility and survivability. According to the plans of the command, he was supposed to survive after being hit by an intercontinental ballistic missile by a potential enemy.

BZHRK "Scalpel" - the previous generation of nuclear trains

For the first time, the development of nuclear trains began to be carried out in the 60s of the twentieth century. Work was carried out in the USSR and the USA approximately in parallel.

What does the idea of creation, according to legend, was thrown up, namely, by the Americans. After unsuccessful attempts by the United States to create a complex, it was decided to start disinformation that such trains were being actively created and would soon be on the rails. The purpose of false information was one - to force the Soviet Union to invest huge funds in an unrealizable idea. As a result, the result exceeded all expectations.

On January 13, 1969, the Order of the Commander-in-Chief "On the creation of a mobile combat railway missile system (BZHRK) with the RT-23 missile" was signed, in pursuance of which by the 1980s in the USSR for the first time in the world it was put into production and tested under conditions close to combat, a missile carrier on a railway platform, which had no analogues and does not exist in the whole world. As experts said, there is no more formidable and mobile weapon on the planet than a mobile railway combat train with a continental missile on board.

The team worked on the creation of the complex Russian Academy Sciences, headed by brothers Alexei and Vladimir Utkin. During the creation, the designers faced several serious difficulties.

Firstly, the mass of the train - a huge weight could deform the railway track. The weight of the smallest ICBM (Intercontinental Ballistic Missile) was 100 tons.
Secondly, the direct flame at the launch of the rocket melted the train and the rails on which it stood.
Thirdly, the contact network above the car, of course, was an obstacle to launching a rocket. And this is not the whole list of problems faced by Soviet specialists.

The BZHRK used RT-23U missiles (according to NATO classification SS-24 "Scalpel"). For the composition were made special missiles with retractable nozzle and fairing. One missile carries a MIRV-type multiple reentry vehicle with 10 warheads with a yield of 500 kilotons each.

An original decision was made to distribute the load on the track. Three cars were connected by a rigid coupling, which ensured that the weight of the rocket was distributed over a longer section of the railway track. In a combat state, special hydraulic paws were put forward.

To divert the contact suspension of the network that interferes with the launch, a special device was invented that carefully removed the wires from the operating area of the complex. The network was de-energized before launch.

To launch a rocket, an ingenious solution was also invented - a mortar launch. Powder charge threw the rocket 20 meters above the ground, after which another charge corrected the inclination of the rocket nozzle away from the train, and after that the first stage engine was turned on. Thus, a column of flame of great temperature did not cause damage to the cars and tracks, but was directed in the right direction.

The autonomy of the rocket train was more than 20 days.

On October 20, 1987, after tests carried out at the Semipalatinsk test site, the RT-23UTTH Molodets missile regiment took up combat duty. And by 1989, 3 divisions of the BZHRK were deployed on the territory of the USSR, dispersed at a distance of many thousands of kilometers: in the Kostroma region, in the Perm and Krasnoyarsk regions.

The BZHRK device includes railway modules for various purposes, namely: 3 launch modules for RT-23UTTKh ICBMs, 7 cars as part of the command module, a module with fuel reserves in a railway tank, and 2 diesel locomotives of the DM-62 modification. Work on improving the equipment did not stop even after entering the troops, and its combat potential was steadily growing.

BZHRK "Molodets" were a nightmare for the Americans. Enormous funds were allocated for tracking ghost trains. Reconnaissance satellites searched for 12 ghost trains across the country and could not distinguish the combat complex from the train with refrigerators (refrigerator cars) carrying food.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, everything changed in Russia. On January 3, 1993, the START-2 treaty was signed in Moscow, according to which the Russian Federation must destroy part of its missile potential, including RT-23U missiles, therefore, by 2005, according to the official version, all BZHRKs are removed from combat duty and destroyed, and a few survivors are sent to storage for further disposal.

The complex was officially on combat duty in the Soviet Union for about 20 years, until 2005.

US attempts to create a ghost train

The United States also made attempts to create missile systems on a railway platform. Their development began in the 1960s, since around the same time, Pentagon scientists first created the Minuteman solid-fuel ballistic missile, which, due to its technical parameters, could be launched from small sites and in railway shaking conditions. The development was given the name "Minitman Rail Garrison".

It was originally planned that the ghost train filled with missiles would run at predetermined positions, for which work would be carried out at the indicated locations to create conditions in order to simplify the launch and adjust the missile's navigation system to the specified launch points.

The first mobile Minuteman missiles on a railway platform were to enter the US Army by mid-1962. But the American administration did not allocate the necessary amount to prepare the infrastructure and launch the production of prototypes, and the program was shelved. And the created transport wagons were used to deliver the "Minitman" to the place of combat deployment - launch mines.

However, after the success of the Soviet Union in the development of similar projects, the United States remembered the technology that had been gathering dust since the 60s and in 1986 created a new project using old developments. For the prototype, the then-existing LGM-118A "Peacekeeper" missile was chosen. It was planned that its traction would be provided by four-axle diesel locomotives, and each train would be provided with two security cars. 2 wagons will be allocated to the launcher with an already loaded missile in the launch container, another will have a control center, and the rest of the wagons will take fuel and parts for current repairs.

But "Peacekeeper Rail Garrison" was never destined to get on the rails. After the official end of the Cold War, the US authorities abandoned the development of missile systems on a railway platform and redirected cash flows for other projects of the military industry.

In the United States, the rail-based missile system was never put into operation - its history ended after unsuccessful tests in 1989.

New railway missile complex of the Russian Federation

At present, for various reasons, not one of the armies of the world is armed with railway launchers. The Russian Federation is the only one that has been working on the creation of this type of weapon since 2012, and by now has developed preliminary projects for a railway launcher that meets all modern requirements for strategic weapons.

It is known that the design name of the new BZHRK is "Barguzin". The project documentation indicates that the Barguzin will be assembled from two main parts: a railway launcher and a combat missile.

The railway launcher will be located on a railway platform, to which a special beam with a lifting boom and a control mechanism is attached. A lifting frame is attached to the railway boom with the possibility of longitudinal movement. TPK (torpedo hull perforator) with a rocket will be supported by supports that are mounted on base plates and equipped with swivel rods.

The rocket is brought to the launch from the TPK, commands to which are given from a special car as part of the BZHRK with control systems brought to it. When the rocket is launched, the roof of the car opens (folds back), due to which the distance necessary for the launch is formed.

Comparative characteristics

Parameter	BZHRK "Barguzin"	BZHRK "Molodets"
Date of adoption	2009	1989
Rocket length, m	22,7	22,6
Starting weight, t	47,1	104,5
Maximum range, km	11000	10 100
Number and power of warheads, Mt	3-4 X 0.15; 3-4 X 0.3	10×0.55
Number of locomotives	1	3
Number of missiles	6	3
Autonomy, days	28	28

Advantages of the new BZHRK:

Less train weight
Modern navigation systems
Greater missile hit accuracy

rockets

Under development project documentation, the developers and the command had a choice - which of the modern missiles in service with the Russian army to use as a projectile on the Barguzin BZHRK. After numerous discussions, the Yars and Yars-M missiles were chosen. This rocket is a solid-propellant silo- and mobile-based ballistic missile with a detachable warhead, maximum range the flight of which is 11,000 kilometers, and the charge power in TNT equivalent is from 150 to 300 kilograms. The specified ballistic missile proved to be excellent during preliminary tests.

Does BZHRK exist now?

After the signing of the START-2 international treaty in January 1993, Russia lost its combat railroad missile systems. Now most of them have been destroyed, and the rest have turned into exhibits standing on the sidings of the railway depots. Therefore, in fact, until 2006, our state was left without a strike force to strike back with colossal mobile capabilities. But in 2002, Russia refused to ratify the START-2 treaty, which meant the possibility of restoring the ballistic missile potential.

As mentioned above, not one of the world powers currently has a single BZHRK worker in combat service. The only country that is taking steps to create a BZHRK is Russia, and several stages have already passed in the process of creating the complex.

Current situation

In 2006, instead of the BZHRK, the troops began to receive Topol-M mobile ground-based missile systems armed with Yars missiles. Currently, the Russian army is armed with more than a hundred Topol-M combat complexes, which can partially fill the gap left after the decommissioning of the BZHRK.

The current situation gives cause for optimism - we all hope that by 2020 mass production BZHRK "Barguzin" will arrive, with which our army will be equipped.

Experimental design work (R&D) on the Barguzin project was started by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering in 2012. The completion of the R&D is planned for 2020, and funds for their implementation are already being allocated. In 2014, the preliminary design of the complex was completed, and by the beginning of 2015, the designers began the first stage of experimental design work to create a railway launcher. Development of design documentation goes full running since 2015. The timing of the creation of individual elements of the Barguzin, its collection and preliminary tests will be known by 2018. The start of the deployment of the complex and its entry into the army is planned for 2020.

In Russia, a new nuclear weapon is being prepared for the final stage of testing - the combat railway missile system (BZHRK) "Barguzin", created on the basis of its predecessor, the BZHRK "Molodets" (SS-24 Scalpel), which was on combat duty from 1987 to 2005 and It was withdrawn from service by agreement with the United States in 1993. What forced Russia to return to the creation of these weapons again?

When once again in 2012 the Americans confirmed the deployment of their missile defense facilities in Europe, Russian President Vladimir Putin rather harshly formulated Russia's response to this. He officially stated that the creation of the American missile defense system actually “zeroes our nuclear missile potential", and announced that our answer would be "the development of strike nuclear missile systems."

One of these complexes was the Barguzin BZHRK, which the US military especially did not like, causing them serious concern, since its adoption makes the presence of US missile defense systems practically useless.

The predecessor of "Bargruzin" "Well done"

Until 2005, the BZHRK was already in service with the Strategic Missile Forces. Its lead developer in the USSR was Yuzhnoye Design Bureau (Ukraine). The only missile manufacturer is Pavlogradsky mechanical plant. Tests of the BZHRK with the RT-23UTTH Molodets missile (according to NATO classification - SS-24 Scalpel) in the railway version began in February 1985 and ended by 1987. BZHRK looked like ordinary trains of refrigerated, mail-luggage and even passenger cars.

Inside each train there were three launchers with Molodets solid-propellant missiles, as well as the entire system for their support with a command post and combat crews. The first BZHRK was put on combat duty in 1987 in Kostroma. In 1988, five regiments were already deployed (a total of 15 launchers), and by 1991, three missile divisions: near Kostroma, Perm and Krasnoyarsk, each consisted of four missile regiments (a total of 12 BZHRK trains).

Each train consisted of several wagons. One car - command post, three others - with an opening roof - launchers with missiles. Moreover, it was possible to launch rockets both from the planned parking lots and from any point on the route. To do this, the train stopped, a contact suspension of electrical wires was removed with a special device, the launch container was placed in a vertical position, and the rocket started.

The complexes stood at a distance of about four kilometers from each other in stationary shelters. Within a radius of 1500 kilometers from their bases, together with the railway workers, work was carried out to strengthen the track: heavier rails were laid, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete, embankments were littered with denser gravel.

It was only professionals who could distinguish the BZHRK from ordinary freight trains, plying thousands across the expanses of Russia (launch modules with a rocket had eight wheel pairs, the rest of the support cars had four each). During the day, the train could cover about 1200 kilometers. The time of his combat patrol was 21 days (thanks to the supplies on board, he could work autonomously for up to 28 days).

BZHRK was attached great importance, even the officers who served on these trains had higher ranks than their counterparts in similar positions in the mine complexes.

Soviet BZHRK - a shock for Washington

Rocketeers tell either a legend, or a true story that the Americans themselves allegedly pushed our designers to create the BZHRK. They say that once our intelligence received information that in the United States they are working on the creation of a railway complex that will be able to move through underground tunnels and, if necessary, appear from under the ground at certain points in order to launch a strategic missile unexpectedly for the enemy.

Photos of this train were even attached to the scouts' report. 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 conventional railways, disguised as freight trains. It will be easier, cheaper and more efficient.

Later, however, it turned out that the Americans had special studies, which showed that in their conditions the BZHRK would not be effective enough. They simply slipped us misinformation in order to once again shake up the Soviet budget, forcing us, as it seemed to them then, to useless expenses, and the photo was taken from a small full-scale model.

But by the time all this became clear, it was already too late for Soviet engineers to work back. They, and not only in the drawings, have already created a new nuclear weapon with an individual-guided 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 all at once, no nuclear warheads will be enough. Therefore, in order to track the movement of these trains, which easily escaped the field of view of tracking systems, the Americans had to keep a constellation of 18 spy satellites almost constantly over Russia, which was very costly for them. Especially when you consider that the US intelligence services have never been able to identify the BZHRK on the patrol route.

Therefore, as soon as the political situation allowed in the early 1990s, the United States immediately tried to get rid of this headache. At first, they obtained from the Russian authorities that the BZHRK would not ride around the country, but would be laid up. This allowed them to constantly keep over Russia instead of 16-18 spy satellites, only three or four. And then they persuaded our politicians to finally destroy the BZHRK. Those officially agreed under the pretext of supposedly "the expiration of the warranty period for their operation."

How the "Scalpels" were cut

The last combat personnel was sent for remelting in 2005. Eyewitnesses said that when the wheels of cars rattled on the rails in the twilight of the night and the nuclear “ghost train” with the Scalpel missiles went to last way, even the strongest men could not stand it: tears rolled down from the eyes of both gray-haired designers and rocket officers. They said goodbye to unique weapons, in many combat characteristics superior to everything that was available and was even planned to be adopted in the near future.

Everyone understood that this unique weapon in the mid-90s became a hostage to political agreements between the country's leadership and Washington. And unselfish ones. Apparently, therefore, each new stage the destruction of the BZHRK strangely coincided with the next tranche of the International Monetary Fund loan.

The refusal of the BZHRK had a number of objective reasons. In particular, when Moscow and Kyiv "fled" in 1991, it immediately hit the Russian nuclear power. Almost all of our nuclear missiles during the Soviet era were made in Ukraine under the guidance of Academicians Yangel and Utkin. Of the 20 types that were 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 Ukrainian Pavlograd.

But every time it became more and more difficult to negotiate with the developers from Nezalezhnaya to extend their service life or upgrade. As a result of all these circumstances, our generals had to report with a sour face to the country's leadership that "in accordance with the planned reduction in the Strategic Missile Forces, another BZHRK was removed from combat duty."

But what to do: the politicians promised - the military are forced to fulfill. At the same time, they perfectly understood: 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 Voevods, we will not have any of these heavy missiles. And then no light Topols will make the weather any more - 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 men, 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 US was not going to abandon plans to create its own missile defense system under any circumstances, work on creating this complex really 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 missiles, in which all the shortcomings that the Scalpel has have been eliminated.

"Barguzin" - the main trump card against US missile defense

The main drawback noted by the opponents of the BZHRK is the accelerated wear and tear of the railway tracks along which it traveled. They often had to be repaired, about which the military and the railway workers had eternal disputes. The reason for this was heavy rockets - weighing 105 tons. They did not fit in one car - they had to be placed in two, reinforcing wheel sets on them.

Today, when the issues of profit and commerce have come to the fore, Russian Railways is probably not ready, as it was before, to infringe on its interests for the sake of the country's defense, and also bear the cost of repairing the canvas if it is decided that their roads will again BZHRK should run. It is the commercial reason, according to some experts, that today could become an obstacle to the final decision to adopt them.

However, this problem has now been removed. The fact is that there will no longer be heavy missiles in the new BZHRK. 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 perfect camouflage of the combat personnel.

True, the RS-24s have only four warheads, while the old missiles had a dozen of them. But here it must be borne in mind that the Barguzin itself is carrying not three missiles, as it was before, but already twice as many. This, of course, is all the same - 24 against 30. But we should not forget that the Yars are practically the most modern development and the probability of overcoming missile defense is much higher than that of their predecessors. The navigation system has also been updated: now you do not need to set the coordinates of targets in advance, everything can be changed quickly.

Such a mobile complex can cover up to 1,000 kilometers per day, cruising along any railway lines in the country, indistinguishable from a regular train with refrigerated cars. The time of "autonomy" is a month. There is no doubt that the new BZHRK grouping will become a much more effective response to the US missile defense system than even the deployment of our operational-tactical Iskander 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 the BZHRK (although theoretically their creation will not violate the latest Russian-American agreements). BZHRK at one time formed the basis of a retaliatory strike grouping in the Strategic Missile Forces, since they had increased survivability and with a high probability could survive after the first strike was delivered by the enemy. The United States was afraid of him no less than the legendary "Satan", since the BZHRK was a real factor in inevitable retribution.

Until 2020, five regiments of the Barguzin BZHRK are planned to be put into service - these are 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.

Special purpose train

A few years ago, the network of Russian railways went secret compositions. Outwardly, they were almost indistinguishable from the usual eyes. passenger trains. But the dispatchers tried to schedule their movement in such a way that they would pass the busy and crowded stations of large cities at night or at dawn. They were not supposed to be in the public eye. ghost trains, or BZHRK - military railway missile systems, - carried a combat watch in the Siberian taiga, in the North and the Far East with nuclear weapons. And along with nuclear-powered ships, aviation and the Rocket Forces, they have 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. Each "special train" equated to a missile regiment (!) and included three M62 diesel locomotives, three seemingly ordinary railway refrigerated cars (a distinctive feature is eight wheelsets), a command car, and cars with autonomous systems power supply and life support and to accommodate the personnel of the shift on duty. In total, a total of 12 wagons.

Moreover, each of "refrigerators" was able to launch nuclear missile both as part of a train and offline. It should be said that such a car can be seen today in Museum of the Ministry of Railways- in the city of St. Petersburg.

Often after the "night visitor" the rails of the railway tracks were so flattened that it was necessary to repair the tracks thoroughly, although the wagons had the inscription "for the transport of light loads" (on the principle "the enemy should be misled").

It is thanks to these "special trains" The Ministry of Railways and was forced to reconstruct many thousands of kilometers of railway lines throughout the USSR in as soon as possible. What was the general impetus for the development of this kind of military equipment.

Information about the creation by the Americans of the rocket "MX", - A new generation of ICBMs became a cause for excitement for 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. Yuzhnoye Design Bureau was appointed as the lead developer. As conceived by the developers, the BZHRK was supposed to form the basis of a retaliatory strike grouping, since it had increased survivability and could survive after the enemy struck the first blow.

– the materialization of the fears of the darkest times " 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 enough to destroy all life on the territory of a potential enemy. And repeatedly. The number of American strategic and tactical warheads then 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 overtaken it).

It would seem that the balance of fear, which rests 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 evade an answer. Therefore, in the nuclear confrontation between the two superpowers, the main task at this stage was the development of weapons systems that are guaranteed to be able to survive after the first strike. In order to destroy the enemy in response, even if the very country they are protecting no longer exists. The BZHRK has become one of the most successful weapons systems designed to inflict "punishment strike".

It cannot be said that the placement of a combat ballistic missile on a railway platform is in itself a purely Russian know-how. For the first time, Soviet rocket scientists encountered something similar when they were dealing with the trophies that they got after the victory over Germany. At the end of the war, the Germans experimented with mobile launch complexes of their V-2, including trying to place it both on open platforms and directly in railway cars. In the 50s and 60s on projects military railway complexes the most famous of our rocket designers of that time worked - Semyon Lavochkin, Mikhail Yangel, Sergey 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-propellant intercontinental ballistic missiles from the mid-70s, the creation of the BZHRK continued to be an extremely difficult technical task. As a result, since the release in January 1969 of the first government decree 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 the only and inimitable 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 Alexei Fedorovich Utkin.

The brothers were born in the Ryazan region, in the village of Lashma on the banks of the Oka. There were two other brothers in the family. The contribution of this family to the defense of the country is difficult to overestimate. In 1941, after graduating from school in the city Kasimov, Vladimir went to the front and fought throughout the war from the first to last day. He was a signalman, and this military specialty instilled in him a special responsibility. During the war, he miraculously survived. 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 Voenmekh. The brothers lived together, but it was difficult, they worked part-time for railway station. They unloaded coal and did not think that someday they would have to load wagons with strategic missiles.

After graduating from the institute, Vladimir Utkin was sent to 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 enterprises of the military-industrial complex. In October 1961, N.S. Khrushchev unleashed a devastating message on the whole world: the USSR tested a hydrogen bomb with a capacity of 50 million tons of TNT on Novaya Zemlya - this is more than TNT was blown up during the six years of World War II by all its participants.

With this message, a signal was given to the Americans: although you outnumber us 10 times in terms of carriers nuclear weapons, but just such a bomb, delivered to US soil, will ensure the inevitability of retribution. This is all true, but with all its advantages, nuclear missile weapons were still vulnerable, and our potential adversaries had long known the launch sites of intercontinental missiles. Explode H-bomb over the area missile-based or over airfields of strategic aviation, and there would be little left of the former nuclear power. The doctrine of the inevitability of retribution cracked at the seams. And then the arms race began at a new level: the creation of mines for missiles that could strike back, transferring them to submarines, aboard strategic bombers.

The Americans hid their "Titans-2", we - "R-16". But very soon it became clear that the accurately induced intercontinental missile can get the target in the mine. The Pershing-2 missile was able to fly to us from Europe in 6-8 minutes. Exactly this much time was required to open the 200-ton hatch of our nuclear missile silo. We responded to the Americans in time, but they were already completing the creation of the fourth-generation Trident-2 ? missiles, and no engineering protection would have helped to survive missile systems when missile attack. Therefore, it was decided to create mobile missile systems.

The Kremlin understood that fundamentally new technical solutions were needed. In 1979, the Minister of General Engineering of the USSR, Sergei Alexandrovich Afanasiev, set a fantastic task for the Utkin designers. Here 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 faced so many problems. We had to place an intercontinental ballistic missile in a railroad car, and after all, a missile with a launcher weighs more than 150 tons. How to do it? After all, a train with such a huge load should go along the nationwide tracks of the Ministry of Railways. How to transport a strategic missile with a nuclear warhead in general, 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 withstand, will the track not collapse, and the start itself, how to transfer the load to the railway track during the launch of the rocket, will the train stand on the rails during the start, how to raise the rocket to a vertical position as quickly as possible after the train stops?

Yes, there were many questions, but it was necessary to solve them. Aleksey Utkin took over the launch train, and the elder Utkin took over the rocket itself and the missile system as a whole. Returning to Dnepropetrovsk, he painfully thought: “Is this task feasible? Weight up to 150 tons, almost instantaneous launch, 10 nuclear warheads, penetration system missile defense how to fit in the dimensions of an ordinary car, and there are three rockets in each train ?! But as often happens, complex tasks always find brilliant performers. So in the late 70s, Vladimir and Alexei Utkin found themselves in the very epicenter of the Cold War, and not only ended up, but became its commanders-in-chief. In Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, Vladimir Utkin forced himself to forget about doubts: such a rocket can and should be built!

They decided to make the engine on solid fuel, but there were no such developments in the design bureau then. 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 withstand, which means that new materials are needed; a rocket cannot be longer than an ordinary refrigerated car, but such shorties were not created in the design bureau. Then they decided to remove the nozzles in the engines themselves, although the world practice of rocket science did not know such solutions. A head fairing protrudes from the other end of the car, without it it is impossible - there will be no accuracy, at first they made it inflatable, but, according to calculations, it could not 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, a feature of which has become increased protection against powerful electromagnetic radiation of the contact network. Unique special communication antennas have been developed for it, which are guaranteed to provide signal reception combat control through the radio-transparent roofs of the wagons. It was impossible to take them outside, since the BZHRK should be like an ordinary train in everything.

Finally, it was necessary to ensure complete autonomy "rocket train" during his exits to combat patrol routes, the length of which reaches 1.5-2 thousand km.

In the meantime, at the Special Engineering Design Bureau, Alexei Utkin and his colleagues have already designed unique spaceport on wheels. Testing of components and assemblies of the future began at the training ground near Leningrad missile carrier. There were a lot of questions: how to take contact wires on electrified sections, how to raise the rocket to a vertical position in a matter of seconds, how to ensure the launch two minutes after the train stops? And most importantly, the start. How to make sure that the fiery tail of the rocket does not burn the sleepers like matches, does not melt the rails with its hellish temperature? And how to solve these questions? Decided!

The powder engine pushes the rocket to a low altitude, the rocket maneuver engine is turned on, and the gas jet of the rocket main engine passes by the cars, the container and the railway track. The main solution was found, which 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 have solved this fantastically difficult task., - Vladimir Fedorovich later said. - We had to make this rocket train and we did it!» The first rocket train was put into service in 1987, the last one, the 12th, was commissioned in 1992.

First Missile Regiment with a rocket RT-23UTTH took up combat duty in October 1987, and by the middle of 1988, 7 regiments were deployed (about 20 launchers in total, all in the Kostroma region). The convoys were located at a distance of about four kilometers from each other in stationary structures, and when they took up combat duty, the convoys dispersed.

By 1991 deployed three missile divisions armed BZHRK and ICBM RT-23UTTH(in the Kostroma region, the Perm region and the 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 bases of the BZHRK, joint measures were taken with the Ministry of Railways of Russia to modernize the railway track: heavier rails were laid, wooden sleepers were replaced with reinforced concrete, and embankments were strengthened with denser gravel.

Flight test of the rocket RT-23UTTH(15ZH61) were produced from February 27, 1985 to December 22, 1987 at NIIP-53 (Mirny), a total of 32 launches were made. 18 exits of the railway train for resource and transport tests were carried out, during which more than 400 thousand kilometers were covered by 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 the Semipalatinsk test site tests have been successfully carried out BZHRK on the impact of electromagnetic radiation ("Radiance") 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 (launcher with a rocket electric mock-up loaded into it, as well as a gearbox) - at a distance of 850m from the center of the explosion, the other (the second launcher) - at a distance of 450m with its butt to 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 test site "Plesetsk", it's a magical sight. 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 diverts the contact network to the side. At this time, the flight task with the specified coordinates of the launch site and target is already being loaded into the missile warheads (the missile can be launched from any point on the combat patrol route where the train is located at the moment the order is received).

The hinged roofs of the wagons, in which the missiles are located in their transport and launch containers (TPP), step aside. Powerful jacks raise the CCI to a vertical position. Having received the command to launch, the rocket is thrown out of the container by 20-30 m by a powder pressure accumulator, correction impulses take it a little away from the launcher, and then the sustainer engine is turned on, which with a roar takes the Molodets into the sky, leaving behind a thick smoke plume characteristic of solid rockets.

Became a constant headache for Americans. The Pentagon spent more money on tracking them than the Utkin brothers spent on creating them. Twelve reconnaissance satellites were looking for them all over 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 the development of similar complexes, but things did not go well. And already after the rocket trains left the track of the Ministry of Railways, they undertook 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 a spy container. But after the train left Vladivostok, the container was opened by our counterintelligence officers. The idea of the Americans failed.

But times have changed, in the early 1990s, our potential adversaries turned into almost friends, however, also potential ones. We blew up mines, cut rockets. And now they are looking at how it will be possible to decapitate our "Scalpel". R rocket railway spaceports driving across the country was deemed inappropriate, a decision was made to transfer the "Scalpels" to duty in closed areas. Now, to the delight of the Americans, they are all there, and they are guarded only from mushroom pickers ...

Yes, the Americans have achieved a lot, they set the condition for the disarmament negotiations to be the destruction of missiles SS-18, "affectionately" called "Satan" by them, and a unique rocket train "Scalpel". Gorbachev, who came to power, immediately agreed, Yeltsin followed his example. The Americans hastily allocated money for the destruction of the missiles they hated 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 inexcusably stupid to destroy the complexes, on the creation of which the entire color of domestic science worked in various industries.

Appointed director of the parent institute TsNIIMASH Vladimir Utkin forever leaves the design work on the creation of 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 climb into this space with anything else. And from there, learn how to live on Earth so well that you see and think: “What are they doing there, on a small Earth?” And these words are not a retreat from previous positions, but an understanding that he was forced to create all his work on the development of missile systems, in response to a threat from the opposite side, in the interests of protecting the Motherland. He created parity, which ultimately helped and is helping to save the world from a thermonuclear war.

Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin, twice Hero of Socialist Labor, academician, laureate of the Lenin and State Prizes, 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 were erected to him.

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 have been unable to do anything of the kind.

With the creation of the Scalpel rail-based missile system, the life of the Utkin brothers turned into a legend. They performed the work entrusted to them by the country with amazing talent, with incredible ingenuity.

How it worked.

The train came out with "refrigerators", which in appearance did not differ from the real ones. Each composition contains three modules. Each module contains three wagons and a shunting motor locomotive, also camouflaged as a refrigerator on wheels. On the move or at any parking lot, launches from this train were not carried out, as they say in Russian publications today. The train arrived at a certain point railway- base locations. The modules were unhooked from the main locomotive, and with the help of shunting diesel locomotives, they "scattered" along the 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 carriages of the module were not decoupled: as they were docked in Pavlograd, so they rode across the vast expanses of our former vast Motherland. In addition, they were completely autonomous. In addition to the launch car, the module included a 60 cubic meter fuel tank made of stainless steel. Pipelines left her, which made it possible to refuel diesel locomotives on the move.

Start

When the starting car is already fixed at a certain point on the railway, at the command of the operator, hydraulic pinning jacks release its roof. Then the end hydraulic jacks are activated synchronously, and the car opens up like a chest, only in two halves. At the same time, 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 to launch!

The missile carries a multiple reentry vehicle of the MIRV type with 10 warheads with a yield of 500 kt each. (The 10-kt atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima). The flight range is 10 thousand kilometers.

Mariupol machine builders completed these trains with very reliable THR (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 was presented with high government awards. They were mainly awarded the medal "For Labor Valor", but soon they were to be awarded the honorary titles "Honored Transport Worker of the USSR". Although, according to the then effective position, the "distance" from award to award is at least three years. It took a special petition from the branch minister for the early assignment of "honored".

In 1991, the list was put on the table to Mikhail Gorbachev, who was to leave the presidency of the head of the superpower in a week or two. What Mikhail Sergeevich thought then, he alone knows. But with candidates for the "honored" he acted in his characteristic spirit of making unpredictable decisions. Gorbachev decided: the last citizen, bursting at the seams, of the Soviet Union, to whom he would assign this high title of "deserved", would be ... Alla Borisovna Pugacheva. Signature - President of the USSR ...

June 16, 2005 the penultimate of the rail-based missile systems "Scalpel" was sent from the Kostroma connection missile troops to the storage base for subsequent liquidation. The last of them is scheduled to be destroyed in September 2005. The official reason why "Scalpels" removed from service is called the expiration of the service life, although if we take into account that they were taken 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 non-nuclear power, under the terms of the agreement can neither have nor 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 that are in service with Russia is being melted down.

There was a time when unique trains went around our country. Outwardly, they resembled familiar trains. But they differed from them in that they never stopped at the stations, preferred the deaf half-stations, and the busy stations of the cities, if they were brought there by fate (or an order!), They tried to slip at dawn, when there were fewer people there.

A few years ago, secret trains were running through the Russian railway network. Outwardly, they were almost no different from the usual passenger trains. But the dispatchers tried to schedule their movement in such a way that they would pass the busy and crowded stations of large cities at night or at dawn. They were not supposed to be in the public eye. 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 Rocket Forces, they have maintained and maintain the strategic balance in the world.

The main designers of the BZHRK were academicians brothers Vladimir and Alexei Utkin. The eldest - Vladimir Fedorovich - has already passed away. Right hand Vladimir Fedorovich in the work on the creation of a rocket train was his brother Alexei.
How was the idea of creating rocket trains born? According to one version, the Americans planted it on us. Soviet intelligence officers obtained information: the American military-industrial complex is preparing to create a train capable of launching ballistic missiles. Allegedly, his photograph even fell into the hands of the intelligence services.

As if the picture was skillfully captured a small model of a rocket train, which did not exist in nature. They say that the overseas "hawks" at first really intended to make a nuclear train, but then abandoned this idea. Why? Their railway network is not so extensive, and the cost of the project turned out to be fabulous. To guide our scientists along the road that leads to a dead end, they made and threw a "linden" to the Russians. Let them break their heads! And the political leadership "pecked" at it and made a strong-willed decision: "to catch up and overtake" overseas strategists.

How was it real? After the Americans deployed their Pershing missiles in Germany, it was necessary to adequately respond to the new threats to the security of our state. So we returned to the idea of rocket trains. Domestic scientists thought about this project even earlier, but for the time being they did not undertake its solution because of the high cost and labor intensity. In addition, the existing defensive potential was quite enough to adequately respond to the Americans. By the way, initially it was considered as a weapon of retaliation. What is its advantage?

In elusiveness. Unlike silo-based missiles, where the coordinates of the targets are known in advance. With the BZHRK, our opponents had a lot of questions to which they could not find answers. To track them in the early nineties, the Americans even created a constellation of military satellites. But even from space it was not so easy to detect their traces. Therefore, even the most modern technology often lost sight of them. They were elusive thanks to the superbly developed railroad network of the Soviet Union. Many years later, American General Powell confessed to an academic: "Looking for your rocket trains is like a needle in a haystack."

The Americans even came up with a special wagon that was equipped with the latest equipment. It did not last long ......

30 ministries and departments and over 130 defense enterprises worked on the creation of combat missile trains. At first glance, the simple idea proposed by the designers - to raise the shaft from the ground and put it on wheels - included a huge number of organizational and technical problems.

What was one of the main problems? Take shooting. When it is driven from a missile silo, the azimuth, altitude, and starting point are known. Determining your location is one of the most difficult problems. In addition, it is necessary to know the load on the rails in a particular place. And soils, as you know, are different. Identical conditions in nature do not exist at all. So, so that the wagons would not fall next to the railway, they came up with a special "mortar launch". If you do not go into details, then its essence is that the rocket is first thrown to a height, and only then starts.

How to aim? Before doing this, you need to stop the train, start the gyroscopes, determine the north and south and where to shoot. Do not forget that you still need to accept orders and commands "from above". To let

rocket at exactly the appointed time and obey your commander in any, even the most unfavorable circumstances modern combat, in the conditions of the use of high-precision weapons, you need to get this command. So a rocket train is a complex complex. And when the Americans were working on this idea, they ran into a number of technical difficulties, and therefore, most likely, they abandoned the science-intensive project.

And if high-voltage wires are located directly above your head. - A special branch of wires was invented, and in addition to this, the supply of electricity to substations was automatically removed. As for the axle load, it should not be more than 25 tons. And a rocket with a launch container weighs over 100 tons and plus the car itself, so it turns out about 200 tons. They came up with the idea to unload the launch complex at the expense of other cars.

It is necessary to take into account the fact that the train is subject to strong vibration in motion. This means that it is necessary not only to stop the train, but also to "turn off" the springs - do not wait until they calm down!

Do not forget that there are officers and soldiers on the train. They need bedrooms, toilets, a dining room, rest rooms... And food supplies, fuel, water are also needed! So the complex is the most complicated ...
- At first glance, it might seem that our country is large and full of "bear corners" where missile systems could safely hide.

Our potential opponents' missiles became more and more accurate, and they could relatively easily "cover" the mines. Therefore, it was necessary to take measures to ensure the reliability of the preventive strike. Of course, the Pershings were good missiles. Although some experts somewhat exaggerated their capabilities. They even talked about the fact that they could hit exactly a stake hammered into the ground a thousand kilometers away.

The answer was the Scalpel rocket. He "fit" into the framework of the agreement with the Americans. It was made in two versions: mine and for basing on the railway. It is hard to imagine how many Pershings had to be fired in order to destroy the rocket train.

This is not a one-on-one battle, as in the mine version, here the balance of forces is completely different ... And therefore, such a combat complex, of course, is unique. And yet, the main idea behind the development of combat missile systems is to increase the possibility of deterrence, so that no one even thinks that they can press a button with impunity!

History shows that we were not the initiators of the arms race. We were forced to catch up all the time and did it in such a way that no one had any illusions that there was an advantage. The deterrence effect has constantly determined the state of affairs in our defense industry, and as long as we can stay up to par, there will be no nuclear war.

We immediately prepared four complexes. If problems arise with one car, a commission is created to find out the causes of the accident. The task of the general designer is to convince the customer, to prove that all the necessary tests have been carried out. You need to move the "car" from its place, and then it will go on its own ... And at this time in Plesetsk the first launch from a rocket train, and naturally, you go there. The test deputy can also go to the second, third launch, but, as a rule, he sits there almost constantly ...

The first train left the factory in 1987, and the last - the twelfth - in 1991. The warranty period is ten years. But usually then it was extended, everything depended on the ideas that were included in the complex. They have stood the test of time.

In 1991, rocket trains were laid up. The former president of the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, entered into the position of the Americans and came to the conclusion that in order to strengthen mutual understanding between the two countries, it is better not to let the BZHRK into the open spaces of Russia. Otherwise, American taxpayers would have to shell out a tidy sum for the deployment by the Pentagon of an additional constellation of reconnaissance satellites. After all, each rocket train travels more than 1000 kilometers per day, and in order to identify only one BZHRK among hundreds of trains plying throughout Russia, and then track its route, it would be necessary to increase the constellation of tracking satellites dozens of times. To carry out such a project, even in such a rich and technologically advanced country as the United States, was beyond the power.

It is not known what arguments overseas friends managed to convince Mikhail Gorbachev. Something else is known: not so long ago, the granddaughter former president Soyuz Ksenia Virganskaya flaunted at the ball of the richest people on the planet in Paris in a dress from Dior, which costs 22 thousand dollars.

And the formidable missile carriers on the rails cannot go beyond the technical territory of the unit. No money.
True, one rocket train left the security perimeter - it was required to carry out repair work in the factory. All other movements of the crews of the BZHRK have to be carried out within the boundaries of the territory of the unit. But, as it turned out, "maneuvers of local significance" in no way reduce the overall combat readiness of the BZHRK crews.

For the training of officers-engineers of the rolling stock, trainings are regularly held on the routes of the BZHRK. It is important for them to visually represent the landscape along the railway track, to know all the turns and forks of the road, almost every telegraph pole along the route. All this ultimately allows you to competently manage the combat composition.

It is possible to solve this problem thanks to the location of the leadership of the Russian railways towards the missilemen, their state approach and understanding that this is done in the name of the country's defense. In principle, military personnel could use their own training train for training, imitating the BZHRK, but the lack of funds is affecting. Today, it is more important to spend money on maintaining those locomotives that are in constant combat readiness.
Now the BZHRK is not aimed anywhere. In the language of rocket scientists, this is called "zero flight mission." The difficulty is that since 1991, missile units have never fired from their systems. Recently, they had to work out the tasks of the combat use of weapons only on simulators. True, in 1998 there was one exception. The combat crew of the BZHRK launched a regular "Scalpel", taken from the train, using a launcher at the Plesetsk training ground.

Under the leadership of VF Utkin and with his direct participation, most of the missiles were created, on which the country's missile defense shield is based.

From 1970 to 1990, V.F. Utkin headed the Yuzhnoye design bureau, first as chief and then general designer. During this time, four strategic missile systems have been developed and put into service, and several launch vehicles have been created. Among them - a highly efficient, environmentally friendly launch vehicle "Zenith"; solid rocket SS-24; unparalleled highly effective strategic missile SS-18.

In the field of space research, various satellites for defense and scientific purposes have been implemented. In total, more than three hundred satellites of the Cosmos family developed by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau were launched into orbit, constituting a significant part of the total number of satellites in this series.

The characteristic principle of VF Utkin's work is the use of defense scientific and technical developments in the interests of science and the national economy. So, on the basis of the SS-9 combat vehicle, a conversion launch vehicle was created

"Cyclone", designed to launch medium payloads into orbit. The satellite "Kosmos-1500" was used in the withdrawal of caravans of ships covered with ice in the East Siberian Sea. "Kosmos-1500" also became the founder of the well-known series of satellites "Ocean", which provide a significant increase in the safety and efficiency of navigation.

Since 1990, VF Utkin has been the director of the Central Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering (TsNIIMASH) of the Russian Aviation and Space Agency (Rosaviakosmos). With the direct participation of Vladimir Fedorovich, the federal space program of Russia was developed.

Under his leadership, as a general designer, R&D was carried out with the aim of creating experimental special-purpose vehicles, scientific and technical "support" was provided for key problems related to the International space station(ISS). Vladimir Fedorovich headed the coordinating scientific and technical council of Rosaviakosmos and the Russian Academy of Sciences for research and experiments on the manned station Mir and the Russian segment of the ISS. V.F. Utkin - author of over 200 scientific papers and a large number of inventions, holder of 11 orders and 14 medals.

The first production train went on combat duty in 1987. He was put on a special platform. Americans recorded from space
unit location. This was done on purpose so that they could take this train into account. In the bilateral agreement, this procedure was spelled out in detail. And then his trail was lost. We tested the train in Plesetsk. He had three combat modules, a "living zone", his own command post.

The main cars of the BZHRK are those in which the PC-22 missile system (according to the Western classification "Scalpel") and the command post of the combat crew are located. "Scalpel" weighs more than a hundred tons and "gets" at a distance of 10 thousand kilometers. The missiles are solid-propellant, three-stage, with ten semi-megaton individually targetable nuclear units on each. There are several such trains in the Kostroma division, and each of them has three launchers: twelve missiles, one hundred and twenty nuclear warheads. One can imagine the destructive power of these rather harmless-looking echelons! In addition to Kostroma, the BZHRK is deployed in two more places.

And such trains plowed the expanses of the country, which could only be seen by chance, carried a combat watch in the North and the Far East, among the taiga and in the mountains ... And they were closely followed by the ocean, sending special satellites to detect them, and every hour, constantly trying to figure out where they are. But do it despite all the perfection modern technology, it was not always possible - the rocket trains "hid" under the usual ones, and try to determine where this missile system is going, and where is the fast Novosibirsk-Moscow "...

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. In the car itself there was also an aiming platform, which, when the car was fixed, tightly rested against the railway track, reading the coordinates of the module 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 starting car is already fixed at a certain point on the railway, at the command of the operator, hydraulic pinning jacks release its roof. Then the end hydraulic jacks are activated synchronously, and the car opens up like a chest, only in two halves. At the same time, 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 to launch!

The missile carries a multiple reentry vehicle of the MIRV type with 10 warheads with a yield of 500 kt each. (The 10-kt atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima). The flight range is 10 thousand kilometers.
Mariupol machine builders completed these trains with very reliable THR (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 was presented with high government awards. They were mainly awarded the medal "For Labor Valor", but soon they were to be awarded the honorary titles "Honored Transport Worker of the USSR". Although, according to the regulations then in force, the “distance” from award to award was at least three years. It took a special petition from the branch minister for the early assignment of "honored".
In 1991, the list was put on the table to Mikhail Gorbachev, who was to leave the presidency of the head of the superpower in a week or two. What Mikhail Sergeevich thought then, he alone knows. But with candidates for the "honored" he acted in his characteristic spirit of making unpredictable decisions. Gorbachev decided: the last citizen, bursting at the seams, of the Soviet Union, to whom he would assign this high title of "deserved", would be ... Alla Borisovna Pugacheva. Signature - President of the USSR ...

June 16, 2005 the penultimate of the rail-based missile systems "Scalpel" was sent from the Kostroma formation of the missile forces to the storage base for subsequent liquidation. The last of them is scheduled to be destroyed in September 2005. The official reason why "Scalpels" removed from service is called the expiration of the service life, although if we take into account that they were taken 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 non-nuclear power, under the terms of the agreement can neither have nor 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 that are in service with Russia is being melted down.