Perimeter protection system dead hand. "Perimeter-RC" - "Dead Hand" Russia has updated the "doomsday" system! "The existence of the 'Hand of Death' means that the West will always have to think twice before giving in to the temptation to launch a nuclear strike," he said.

06.03.2020

To ensure the guaranteed fulfillment of its role, the system was originally designed as fully automatic, and in the event of a massive attack, it is able to decide on an adequate retaliatory strike on its own, without the participation (or with minimal participation) of a person. The existence of such a system is sometimes called immoral, but in fact it is the only deterrent that gives real guarantees that a potential adversary will abandon the concept of a crushing preventive strike.

According to Vladimir Yarynich, one of the developers of the system, the system also served as insurance against making a hasty decision by the country's top leadership on the basis of unverified information. Having received a signal from the missile attack warning system, the first persons of the state could activate the Perimeter system and calmly await the development of events, while being fully confident that even the destruction of everyone who has the authority to issue a command for a retaliatory attack will not be able to prevent the strike retribution. Thus, the possibility of making a decision on a retaliatory strike in the event of a false alarm was completely excluded.

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✪ System Perimeter Dead Hand

✪ Guaranteed retaliation Perimeter system Nuclear retaliation from Russia against the USA

✪ Perimeter system: how Russia will respond to a nuclear attack

✪ System "Perimeter" - "Dead Hand" USSR / System "Perimeter" "Dead Hand"

✪ "Heavenly Shield of Russia" Russia 1 - 13.03.2014

Subtitles

How the system works

After the order received from the highest levels of control of the Strategic Missile Forces to a special command post, the command missile 15P011 with a special warhead 15B99 is launched, which in flight transmits launch commands to all launchers and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces that have the appropriate receivers.

Composite Components

Command posts of the system

Apparently, they are structures similar to the standard missile bunkers of the Strategic Missile Forces. They contain the control equipment and communication systems necessary to ensure the operation of the system. Presumably integrated with the command missile launchers, however, most likely they are spaced quite a distance to ensure better survivability of the system.

command missiles

The only widely known component of the complex. They are part of the 15P011 command missile complex and have the index 15A11, developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau based on 15A16 missiles (MR UR-100U). Equipped with a special warhead 15B99, containing a radio command system developed by OKB LPI, designed to guarantee the delivery of combat orders from the central command post to all command posts and launchers under the influence of nuclear explosions and active electronic countermeasures, when the warhead is flying in the passive section of the trajectory. The technical operation of the missiles is identical to the operation of the base rocket 15A16. Launcher 15P716 - mine, automated, highly protected, type OS, most likely - modernized PU OS-84. The possibility of basing missiles in other types of launch silos is not ruled out.

The development of a command missile was started by the TTT of the Ministry of Defense in 1974. Flight design tests were carried out at NIIP-5 (Baikonur) from 1979 to 1986. A total of 7 launches were carried out (of which 6 were successful and 1 was partially successful). The mass of the warhead 15B99 is 1412 kg.

Receiving devices

They ensure the receipt of orders and codes by the components of the nuclear triad from command missiles in flight. They are equipped with all launchers of the Strategic Missile Forces, all SSBNs and strategic bombers. Presumably, the receiving devices are hardware-connected to the control and launch equipment, providing autonomous execution of the launch order.

Autonomous command and control system

The mythical component of the system is a key element of the Doomsday Machine, the existence of which there is no reliable information. Some supporters of the existence of such a system believe that this is a complex expert system, equipped with many communication systems and sensors that control the combat situation. This system presumably monitors the presence and intensity of communications on the air at military frequencies, the receipt of telemetry signals from the Strategic Missile Forces posts, the level of radiation on the surface and in the vicinity, the regular occurrence of point sources of powerful ionizing and electromagnetic radiation at key coordinates, coinciding with sources of short-term seismic disturbances in the earth's crust (which corresponds to the pattern of multiple ground-based nuclear strikes), and, possibly, the presence of living people on the command post. Based on the correlation of these factors, the system probably makes the final decision on the need for a retaliatory strike.

Another proposed variant of the system's operation is that upon receiving information about the first signs of a missile attack, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief puts the system into combat mode. After that, if within a certain time the command post of the system does not receive a signal to stop the combat algorithm, then command missiles are launched.

In an informal interview with Wired magazine, one of the developers of the system, Vladimir Yarynich, reports the following information about the algorithm of the Perimeter system:

It was designed to lie dormant until a high-ranking official activates it in a crisis. Then she would start monitoring a network of sensors - seismic, radiation, atmospheric pressure - for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching a retaliatory strike, the system would have to check four "ifs": if the system was activated, it would first try to determine if a nuclear weapon had been used on Soviet territory. If this turned out to be true, the system would check the presence of communication with the General Staff. If there was communication, the system would automatically shut down after some time - from 15 minutes to an hour - passed without further signs of attack, assuming that officials capable of ordering a counterattack were still alive. But if there had been no communication, Perimeter would have decided that Doomsday had arrived, and immediately transferred the right to decide on the launch to anyone who at that moment would be deep in a protected bunker, bypassing the usual multiple instances.

Original text (English)

It was designed to lie semi-dormant until switched on by a high official in a crisis. Then it would begin monitoring a network of seismic, radiation, and air pressure sensors for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching any retaliatory strike, the system had to check off four if/then propositions: If it was turned on, then it would try to determine that a nuclear weapon had hit Soviet soil. If it seemed that one had, the system would check to see if any communication links to the war room of the Soviet General Staff remained. If they did, and if some amount of time-likely ranging from 15 minutes to an hour-passed without further indications of attack, the machine would assume officials were still living who could order the counterattack and shut down. But if the line to the General Staff went dead, then Perimeter would infer that apocalypse had arrived. It would immediately transfer launch authority to whoever was manning the system at that moment deep inside a protected bunker-bypassing layers and layers of normal command authority .

doomsday machine

Arguments against the possibility of implementing the Doomsday Machine in the Perimeter system

Opponents of the possibility of the existence of the Doomsday Machine system give the following arguments:

History of the system

After ground testing of the technical solutions of the missile system in 1979, flight design tests of the command missile began. For this, two experimental mine launchers were built at the test site. In addition, a special command post was created, equipped with new, unique combat control equipment to ensure remote control and launch of a command missile. Flight tests of the rocket were carried out under the leadership of the State Commission, headed by Lieutenant General V. V. Korobushin, First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces. The first launch of a rocket with an experimental transmitter model was successfully carried out on December 26, 1979. During the tests, the developed complex algorithms for interfacing all the systems participating in the tests, the possibility of providing the missile with a given flight path and the operation of all service warhead systems in the normal mode were tested, the correctness of the adopted technical solutions was confirmed.

A total of 10 missiles were made for flight tests. During the tests of the system, real launches of various types of ICBMs from combat facilities were carried out according to orders transmitted by the 15A11 command missile during the flight. To do this, additional antennas were mounted on the launchers of these missiles and receiving devices of the Perimeter system were installed. Later, all launchers and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces underwent similar modifications. In total, during flight design tests, six launches were recognized as successful, and one was partially successful. In connection with the successful progress of the tests and the fulfillment of the tasks set, the State Commission considered it possible to be satisfied with seven launches instead of the planned ten. Simultaneously with the flight tests of the rocket, ground tests of the performance of the entire complex under impact conditions were carried out. The tests were carried out at the test site, in the laboratories of VNIIEF (Arzamas-16), as well as at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site. The checks carried out confirmed the operability of the equipment at levels of impact of damaging factors nuclear explosion exceeding those specified by the terms of reference of the Ministry Defence USSR. In addition, during the tests, a government decree set the task of expanding the functions of the complex, bringing combat orders not only to the objects of the Strategic Missile Forces, but also for SSBNs, long-range and maritime missile-carrying aircraft at airfields and in the air, and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces, Air Force and Navy . Flight design tests of the command rocket were completed in March 1982, and in January 1985 the Perimeter complex was put on combat duty.

Many enterprises and organizations of various ministries and departments took part in the creation of the complex. The main ones are: the Experimental Design Bureau at the Kalinin LPI (Impulse Design Bureau, V.I. Melnik), NPO AP (N.A. Pilyugin), KBSM (A.F. Utkin), TsKBEM (B.R. Aksyutin), MNIIRS (A. P. Bilenko), (B. Ya. Osipov), Central Design Bureau “Geophysics” (G. F. Ignatiev), (E. B. Volkov).

System operation and current status

After being put on combat duty, the complex worked and was periodically used during command and staff exercises. The 15P011 command missile system with the 15A11 missile (based on the MR UR-100) was on combat duty until June 1995, when, under the START-1 agreement, the complex was removed from combat duty. According to other sources, this happened on September 1, 1995, when the 510th Missile Regiment, armed with command missiles, was taken off duty and disbanded in the 7th Missile Division (village Vypolzovo). This event coincided in time with the completion of the withdrawal of the MR UR-100 missiles from the Strategic Missile Forces and the process of re-equipping the 7th RD with the Topol mobile ground missile system that began in December 1994.

There is also evidence that earlier the Perimeter system, along with 15A11 missiles, included command missiles based on the Pioneer IRBM. Such a mobile complex with "pioneer" command missiles was called "Gorn". Complex index - 15P656, missiles - 15ZH56. It is known about at least one unit of the Strategic Missile Forces, which was armed with the Gorn complex - the 249th missile regiment, stationed in the city of Polotsk, Vitebsk region of the 32nd missile division (Postavy), from March-April From 1986 to 1988 he was on combat duty with a mobile complex of command missiles.

Organizations involved in the production of components and maintenance of the complex are experiencing funding difficulties. There is a high turnover of staff, resulting in a drop in the qualifications of staff. Despite this, the leadership of the Russian Federation has repeatedly assured foreign states that there is no risk of accidental or unauthorized missile launches.

In the Western press, the system was given the name "Dead Hand" (dead hand) .

Notes

Dr. Bruce G. Blair Preface to C3: Nuclear Command, Control, Cooperation
Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS) - United States Nuclear Forces (indefinite) . Archived from the original on March 3, 2012.
http://epizodsspace.testpilot.ru/bibl/kb-ujn/09.html (unavailable link - story , copy)
Rockets and spacecraft of the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau / Ed. S. N. Konyukhova. - Dnepropetrovsk: ColorGraph LLC, 2001. - S. 47-48.
Dr. Strangelove"s "Doomsday Machine": It"s Real, NPR (September 26, 2009). Archived from the original on April 25, 2017. Retrieved 28 April 2017. "...So now, we need to bypass all the traditional layers of command authority, and suddenly, the ability to launch a nuclear retaliatory strike is given to some junior official in a bunker."

Silence after us

The unofficial motto of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces

On August 6, 1945, the atomic bomb "Kid" with a capacity of 21 kilotons of TNT was dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. Since then, a new era has begun in the history of mankind. And for more than seventy years now, we have been constantly living under the fear of a global catastrophe, which can not only wipe out our biological species from the face of the Earth, but also turn the entire planet into a lifeless radioactive ball.

Since the beginning of the nuclear age, the world has been on the edge of the abyss many times, and only a miracle has kept us from falling into it. At the same time, it should be recognized that the presence of nuclear weapons has become the most reliable means of deterrence - without it, the Cold War, no doubt, would have rolled into the Third World War ...

And although the era of the Great Confrontation between East and West is long gone, the situation has not changed fundamentally - a full-scale war between the leading nuclear powers is impossible even today, because there will be no winners in it ...

This status quo is maintained not only thanks to the nuclear parity that exists between Russia and the United States, but also to other creepy tools that our country has inherited since the Cold War.

The Perimeter system is the perfect weapon of retaliation

In the 1980s, the Soviet Union developed an unprecedented strategic force control system - "Perimeter". In the West, she received the designation Dead Hand, which means "Dead Hand". In fact, this is a parallel, duplicating system of control of the country's nuclear forces, dispersed, hidden and well protected.

However, even this is not the main thing: the Perimeter system is capable of operating automatically when communication with the country's leadership is lost or the first persons of the state have already turned into radioactive ashes. In this case, the Perimeter system gives the command to launch all the remaining carriers of nuclear weapons and avenges its burnt cities and command posts...

According to the developers of Perimeter, there is no reliable and guaranteed way to disable this system, since it was designed to perform its tasks in the very heat of a nuclear war.

In fact, the "Perimeter" is an ideal retaliation weapon that guarantees the aggressor a retaliatory strike even in the event of a sudden attack. At the same time, it should be noted that the leadership of the country, command posts and communication centers of the Strategic Missile Forces are the highest priority target in the event of a nuclear Armageddon.

The Perimeter system is still in service with the Russian army. Information about the principles of its operation and the main elements is one of the main military secrets of our country, therefore only the most general data are in the public domain. In 2011, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General Karakaev, told reporters that the Perimeter system was on alert and capable of performing its functions at any time.

The world learned about the existence of the "Dead Hand" after the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 90s, from the designers who left for the West. There, this system was immediately dubbed the “Doomsday Machine” and called inhuman. True, at the same time, critics forgot about the American analogue of the Soviet "Perimeter", as well as the fact that, probably, similar systems are operated in the USA today.

For many years, almost nothing was heard about the "Perimeter", but recently the "Dead Hand" began to appear more and more often in the Russian media. Like, only this system does not allow the American hawks to unleash the Third World War. And here, most likely, there is a typical transfer of one's own desires to the opponent. For it seems extremely unlikely that today anyone in the well-fed and prosperous West would want to unleash a large-scale nuclear Armageddon.

History of the Doomsday Machine

Speaking about the control of nuclear weapons, we usually imagine a red button, well, or, at worst, a “nuclear briefcase”. However, at the dawn of the atomic age, immediately after the appearance of the first intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), communication between high command and personnel directly carrying out the launch was much simpler. It was based on special packages that had to be opened after receiving the code word. And they transmitted it by conventional radio or wired communication. In the USSR, the first control system for nuclear forces was called "Monolith".

Vladimir Yarynich, one of the developers of Perimeter in the future, and in the 60s an ordinary rocket scientist, described in detail the shortcomings of this system. According to him, during the announcement of the training alert, the officer was so nervous that his hands were trembling, and for a long time he could not open the envelope with scissors. The problem was noticed, and the package was provided with a special fastener. This "know-how" saved as much as 18 seconds ...

However, the main drawback of the "Monolith" was clearly not the design of the secret package. The overall speed of the system was unsatisfactory, the security of communication lines also left much to be desired. In addition, with the scheme of work through sealed packages, the given order could no longer be canceled ...

But the weakest link of the "Monolith" was the man who had to directly carry out the order. It turned out that the entire Soviet nuclear power depended on a few officers pressing the "red buttons" in the missile silos. Moreover, they were better than others aware of the consequences of a nuclear war. Everyone could ask themselves a question: if half of the world has already been destroyed, then why incinerate the other?

And it must be said that the prospect of using nuclear weapons horrified not only the rocket scientists. In 1972, the Soviet military presented to Kosygin and Brezhnev their calculations of the consequences of a massive American nuclear strike on the USSR. They were stunning: 80 million dead immediately after the attack, the complete destruction of industry and the armed forces. After reading the report, the Secretary General, who himself had once gone through the war, was shocked. Then a training launch of three ballistic missiles was organized for Brezhnev. Those present at the same time recalled that Leonid Ilyich's hands trembled before pressing the button, and he asked several times whether the rockets were really training ones. Ten years later, Ronald Reagan found himself in a similar situation. The US military took him to a special bunker and showed him a model of a possible nuclear war. The President had not yet had time to finish his coffee when Washington was destroyed. And it took Soviet missiles less than half an hour to completely wipe the United States off the face of the Earth. According to the memoirs of advisers, Reagan was amazed that with one nod of his head he could incinerate tens of millions of people.

The Caribbean crisis clearly showed all the shortcomings of the Monolith, and therefore in 1967 it was replaced by the Signal system, which had greater speed and security. And more importantly, now the given order could be canceled. "Signal" did not use packages; instead, 13 pre-programmed commands were introduced, which were transmitted to direct performers.

Later, the Signal system was modernized several times. Its latest version, "Signal-A", put into service in 1985, allowed the leadership of the Strategic Missile Forces to remotely change the targets of missiles in the mines. This took 10 to 15 seconds. That is, the development of the nuclear weapons control system proceeded by maximizing its automation and reducing the influence of the human factor on its operation. At the same time, the first Soviet "nuclear suitcase" - "Cheget" was created.

In the 1970s, the development of a backup system began, which, in addition to protecting the main channel, had to solve another important task - to guarantee the protection of the system from false alarms. It was these works that subsequently led to the emergence of the Perimeter control system.

How "Dead Hand" was created

By the end of the 1960s, the rapid development of electronic warfare jeopardized the transmission of orders from the top leadership of the country and the armed forces to the command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces and individual launchers.

In 1973, the United States put forward the concept of a "decapitating strike", according to which, in the event of a full-scale nuclear conflict with the USSR, the first strike should be delivered at command posts and communication centers using medium and short-range missiles, as well as cruise missiles stationed in Europe. In this case, due to the gain in flight time, the leadership of the Soviet Union would be destroyed even before it decides on a massive retaliatory strike on US territory.

This became a serious challenge for the USSR, which certainly had to be answered. The idea was proposed to use a special command missile to control nuclear forces, in which a powerful radio transmitter was installed instead of a warhead. Its launch was supposed to take place automatically in the event of the destruction of command posts.

Work on the creation of a command rocket was entrusted to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, they began in 1974, after the relevant government decree. The ICBM UR-100UTTH was taken as the basis. The project was very large-scale - dozens of enterprises, institutes and research centers of the Soviet Union took part in it.

In 1979, flight design tests of the rocket began. In addition, a special command post was built, on which new control equipment was installed. In total, 10 tests of the command missile were carried out, during which, on her orders, real launches of various types of ICBMs were carried out. At the same time, the operation of the complex was tested under the influence of damaging factors of nuclear weapons. Even during the tests, the designers were tasked with expanding the capabilities of the Perimeter so that it could convey orders to missile-carrying submarine cruisers, strategic aircraft, as well as naval and air force command posts.

Flight tests of the rocket were completed in 1982, and in 1985 the system was put into service. The first comprehensive test of the system was carried out during the large-scale exercises "Shield-82".

In 1990, the modernized Perimeter-RTs complex was adopted, in which the command missile was created on the basis of the Topol ICBM.

Until 1995, "Perimeter" was on alert, periodically taking part in various exercises. Then, as part of the obligations under the START-1 agreement, the system was removed from duty. However, it expired in 2009. In 2011, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Karakaev confirmed to journalists that Perimeter exists and is on alert.

What is the "Perimeter"

We do not know too much about the elements of the Perimeter system, and it is possible that some of the information available is misinformation, specially disseminated to hide the truth. This complex includes:

command post (or posts);
rockets to transmit orders;
receiving devices;
autonomous control and computer complex.

The command posts of the Perimeter system are probably similar to conventional command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces. They are equipped with communication systems and equipment necessary to launch command missiles. The Grotto object, which is located in the Kosvinsky stone mountain range in the Urals, is most often called such a CP. It is not known how many such sites exist, and how integrated they are with command missile launchers.

The Command Missile is the best-known component of the Perimeter. Initially, it was developed on the basis of the UR-100 ICBM, however, there is information that there were also command missiles based on the Pioneer IRBM, and in the late 80s, Topol was “adapted” for this task. The command rocket has a powerful radio transmitter, through which the command "Launch!" all ballistic missiles that survived the first enemy strike.

receiving devices. They ensure the receipt of an order from a command missile, respectively, all launch silos and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces, missile submarines and strategic aircraft should be equipped with them. However, nothing is known about their structure and principles of operation.

The autonomous command system is without a doubt the most mysterious and interesting part of the Perimeter. There is no official or at least some reliable data about her. Many do not believe in its existence at all. The main debate is whether there is a so-called Doomsday Machine - a kind of supercomputer based on artificial intelligence - that is capable of itself, without human intervention, to make a decision on the use of nuclear weapons.

How Dead Hand works

There are two hypotheses regarding the principles of operation of the "Perimeter". According to the first of them, during the period of international aggravation, which theoretically could end in a nuclear war, the head of state - he is also his commander in chief - puts the system into combat mode. If before a certain moment the "Perimeter" is not "turned off" again, then it will initiate the launch of command missiles, which, in turn, will launch the scenario of the Third World War.

Such a scheme resembles the work of a bomb with a timer, which can only be turned off by one person.

The second version assumes that Perimeter has some kind of powerful electronic analytical center capable of receiving information, processing it, and then making independent decisions regarding the use of nuclear weapons. In addition, according to this hypothesis, the system has a large number of sensors that collect and transmit information to the analytical center.

By measuring the level of electromagnetic radiation, the radioactive background, seismic activity, fixing the level and intensity of negotiations on military frequencies, as well as analyzing data from SPNR, the system determines whether an enemy nuclear attack has occurred. Also, the presence of communication with the top leadership of the country and the command centers of the Strategic Missile Forces is constantly checked. If the information about a massive nuclear strike is confirmed, but there is no connection with the leadership, then the system itself gives the command to use nuclear weapons.

This hypothesis raises a lot of questions and has many opponents. One of the main functions of any system for the use of nuclear weapons is protection against unauthorized operation. Therefore, rocket launches are still carried out manually. This is too serious a matter, and people here don't trust computers too much.

Vladimir Yarynich, already mentioned above, in an interview with Wired journalists, said that the Perimeter system can really determine whether a blow was struck on the territory of the country. Then she tries to contact the General Staff and only if it is impossible to do this transfers the right to launch a nuclear weapon to anyone who at that moment is nearby in a secret and especially protected bunker. That is, the final decision is still made by a person ...

By the way, Yarynich himself considered "Perimeter" the best insurance against the use of nuclear weapons in the event of a false alarm. Having received information about the massive launch of enemy missiles, the highest person in the state can simply put the "Perimeter" into combat mode, knowing that even if the entire leadership of the country is destroyed, the aggressor will not escape retribution.

During the Cold War, the Americans were not even aware of the "Perimeter", which can be called very strange. The Soviet leadership needed to trumpet the existence of such a system, because the mere mention of it would serve as deterrence much better than any new missiles or nuclear-powered missile carriers. Probably, the military was afraid that, having learned about the existence of the system, the Americans would be able to find a weak link in it. One way or another, but the first information about the "Perimeter" began to appear in the Western press only after the collapse of the USSR.

Out of habit, people do not pay attention to the fact that peace on the planet over the past decades has been on the brink of an abyss, and with it not only the lives of billions of people, but also the integrity of the planet Earth itself. And this global danger of a catastrophe on a planetary scale arose from the moment of the creation of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery - intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The history of recent decades has known moments when the threat of inciting a nuclear war, and after it a nuclear winter, has dozens, if not hundreds of cases. The most ingenious plans for nuclear strikes were developed, as a result of which the existence of the Soviet Union would long ago be history, but not in the form it is now, but in a different, apocalyptic one.

However, in the very last moments, as if some unknown force stopped the finger of an American officer from pressing the red button. Maybe it really existed, or maybe this restraining force still exists today? As it turned out relatively recently from semi-official and understandably unverified sources, such a deterrent does indeed exist.

Today, such a deterrent even from thoughts of inciting a third world war is a certain strictly secret system inherited by Russia from the USSR. It will make it possible to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike, even if the command posts and lines of communication in the strategic nuclear forces are completely destroyed. We call this system "Perimeter", and Western military analysts called it "Dead hand", which translates from English as "Dead hand".

How a system called "Perimeter" could work in the era of the USSR

The apocalyptic scenario could develop according to the following scenario. In a balanced world, the military-political situation would sharply worsen, for example, because of some small country, for example, the Middle East region. The long patience of "Western democracy" incited by the military-political leadership of the countries participating in the North Atlantic alliance would come to an end.

Seeing no alternative for himself from the current situation, and considering himself in complete safety, the president of one of the states dominant in this bloc would make a decision and give the order to launch a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, justifying it as a preemption. From a great many mines, from several continents, the deadliest missiles on the planet would be launched without warning, but this is not the whole picture of a massive nuclear strike. In addition to a ground attack, launchers on nuclear submarines plying the world's oceans would be activated, strategic bombers and other aircraft carrying nuclear weapons would attack the territory of the USSR from the air.

Large cities, nuclear power plants, strategic and military-industrial complexes, military installations, as well as launch silos with strategic ballistic missiles, would be hit by a swift, powerful nuclear missile strike. Rockets and bombs, stuffed with many thousands of warheads, would have swooped down on the unsuspecting peacefully resting Soviet population, destroying everything around with hitherto unseen power.

For some time, the Soviet party leadership, who was in a state of shock and panic, but who managed to move into special underground bunker-type shelters, would have clarified the general situation. In a half-asleep state, the military-political leaders would try to contact at least someone and find out: did a tragic mistake happen, and is there a prospect for correcting the current situation? However, what had happened could not have been corrected by anything, and the government would have been liquidated in its entirety - intelligence indicated the exact coordinates of its shelters.

With the largest metropolitan areas, with strategic industrial facilities and military centers, control and communication points, it would be finished with one single massive attack. They simply would not have had time to use the mighty nuclear arsenals of the Soviet Union: there was no command, and in the absence of leaders in command centers, any most serious enemy was blinded and immobilized.

When immediately taken satellite photographs would show that only ruins and ashes remained on the territory of the once powerful superpower. When the political leadership of the member states of the alliance, together with the NATO generals, would try to celebrate the victory not in the "cold", but in the "hot" war. In those very moments when glasses of champagne would be raised by all the “winners” and “victory” toasts would sound, something unthinkable and incomprehensible would suddenly happen.

It would seem that the enemy, silent for all eternity, seemed to have awakened. The most sophisticated equipment would notify, and vaunted intelligence immediately confirmed that the launch of strategic ballistic missiles had been discovered from the ruins and ashes. Thousands of nuclear missiles would have rushed in the opposite direction from the initial launch, in the direction of the aggressor, who risked being the first to press the "red button", counting on a swiftly carried out successful operation.

The same feelings and emotions: surprise, fear, panic, but also not very long. All this would have lasted just as long as it would have taken for ballistic missiles to reach specific Western states and drop their deadly cargo. Reaching the targets, thousands more warheads would fly out of the head of the missiles like bees.

With incredible efforts and colossal costs, the built missile defense would intercept almost nothing. Soviet missiles, referred to in the West as "Satan", would begin to wipe out large cities, military bases, and command centers from the earth's surface. No winners, no losers, no one. A nuclear winter would quietly fall on the planet.

This is how the system, called “Perimeter” in the Soviet Union, which in Western expert circles acquired the chilling name “Dead Hand”, would have reacted. This would be the consequences of the last argument of the Soviet (and now Russian) strategic forces. Despite the numerous "Doomsday Machines" invented by science fiction writers, guaranteeing retribution for any enemies who could reach and completely eliminate it, only the "Perimeter" really can do it.

However, the system of inevitable retribution "Perimeter" is in such a strictly classified mode that there were many doubts about its actual existence and there were just as many rumors. There were also rumors about the well-known American SDI system. It was said that everything was a bluff in order to ruin the economic situation of the Soviet Union as soon as possible. So, what can you learn from open sources?

System of inevitable retribution "Perimeter"

No one who has ever been initiated into one of the strictest secrets that the Soviet military “defense industry” hid in itself would have known about the presence of the “Perimeter” in the former Union, whenever one person, his development engineer, would have decided to move to the United States. There he successfully managed to give out information of particular importance about the existence of a system for obtaining an American passport without problems. Already in 1993, the influential American newspaper The New York Times circulated a panic article with a sensational headline about the “doomsday machine” allegedly in Russia.

The system was called immoral by US newspapermen. "Perimeter" had to be on combat duty for several more years after it was "exposed", because under the START-1 agreement it was removed from combat duty in 1995.

A little later in December 2001, the director of the project on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons issued some information in which he shared the so-called "truth of life." The US strategic nuclear forces (SNF) have been configured in such a way as to pose a constant military threat to Russian nuclear and economic facilities. Even during the moments of negotiations with the participation of President V. Putin, they keep his office in the Kremlin at gunpoint.

In December 2011, one of the newspapers published an interview with the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces S. Karakaev, in which he confirmed that Perimeter was still operating. Moreover, he has to be on combat duty, and in the event of a necessary retaliatory strike, when there is no longer a chance to bring a signal to some parts of the launchers, these commands can come from Perimeter missiles.

Perimeter Reckoning Weapon System: Automatic Launch

Wired magazine wrote that Russia has the only weapon in the world that guarantees the use of a nuclear retaliatory strike against enemies, even if no one else has to decide about it. It was also emphasized there that with the help of a unique system, a counterattack would occur automatically.

Kiselev's well-known phrase that Russia is the only country that can "turn the United States into radioactive ashes" was discussed all over the world. At the same time, the hosts of Vesti Nedeli briefly talked about Perimeter. But how exactly does this system work?

In the same Wired magazine, one of the system development engineers, Vladimir Yarynich, reported information on the Perimeter operation algorithm. The system was designed to remain dormant until activated by a high-ranking official in an emergency. Then it would begin to monitor sensors - seismic, radiation, atmospheric pressure - to identify signs of a nuclear explosion.

Before launching a retaliatory strike, the system must check four "ifs":

If the system would be activated, then it would determine whether nuclear weapons were used in the expanses of the USSR;
If this were the case, the system would check the connection with the General Staff;
If there was a connection, then the system would automatically turn off. After some time - from 15 minutes to 1 hour, which passed without a hint of an attack, she would assume that the list of officials capable of giving the order to strike was still in place;
If there was no connection, the “Perimeter” would have made a decision about the onset of “Judgment Day”, and right there he would have given the right to make this decision to anyone who could then stay in a deep and protected bunker, bypassing the usual numerous instances.

Such a system is proposed in an official source, but how things really are, one can only guess.

If you have any questions - leave them in the comments below the article. We or our visitors will be happy to answer them.

Original taken from masterok in System of guaranteed retaliatory nuclear strike "Perimeter"

We begin to deal with topics that are of interest to friends and which they ordered in December table orders. An interesting question was raised skytail , we read:

"Tell me about it: Perimeter Guaranteed Nuclear Response System" "

Something vague I heard somehow, but then there was an occasion to understand this in more detail.

"Our strategic nuclear forces (SNF) are configured to threaten Russian nuclear and economic facilities. Even as we negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, we keep his Kremlin office at gunpoint. That's the truth of life- Joseph Cirincione, Director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2001.

Russia possesses the only weapon in the world that guarantees a retaliatory nuclear strike against the enemy, even in the terrible event that we no longer have anyone to decide on this strike. The unique system counterattacks automatically - and brutally.

Command missile 15A11 system "Perimeter"

System Perimeter (index URV Strategic Missile Forces: 15E601)- a complex for automatic control of a massive retaliatory nuclear strike, created in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. Designed to guarantee the launch of silo ICBMs and SLBMs in the event that, as a result of a devastating nuclear strike on the territory of the USSR, all the command units of the Strategic Missile Forces capable of issuing an order for a retaliatory strike are destroyed. The system is a backup communication system used in the event of the destruction of the Kazbek command system and the combat control systems of the Strategic Missile Forces, Navy and Air Force.

The system is the only doomsday machine (weapon of guaranteed retaliation) in existence in the world, the existence of which has been officially confirmed. The system is still classified and may be on alert to this day, so any information about it cannot be confirmed as unambiguously reliable or refuted, and should be viewed with a proper degree of skepticism.

In the mid-1970s, in Leningrad, the development of a control system for strategic missile forces - the Strategic Missile Forces - began. In the documents, she received the name "Perimeter". The system involved the creation of such technical means and software that would make it possible, under any conditions, even the most unfavorable, to bring the order to launch missiles directly to the launch teams. As conceived by the creators of Perimeter, the system could prepare and launch missiles even if everyone died and there would be no one to give the order. This component has become unofficially called the "Dead Hand".

When creating a new command and control system for the Strategic Missile Forces, two important questions had to be answered. First: how to make soulless automation understand that its time has come? Secondly: how to give it the ability to turn on exactly at the moment when it is needed, not earlier and not later? Naturally, there were other issues - perhaps not so important individually, but global in the aggregate.

It is extremely difficult to create a reliable system with such parameters. However, the wizards from the Soviet military-industrial complex were able to come up with such a scheme for Armageddon that they themselves became frightened. But on the other hand, there was also the pride of professionals who did what no one had ever been able to do before them. But how?

Any missile, especially one equipped with a nuclear warhead, can only take off if ordered to do so. In peacetime, when conducting training firing (with a mock warhead instead of a real warhead), this happens to the ordinary simply. The command to launch is transmitted over the command lines, after which all blockages are removed, the engines are ignited, and the rocket is carried away into the distance. However, in a real combat situation, in the event of various kinds of interference, it would be much more difficult to do this. As in the hypothetical surprise nuclear strike scenario we cited at the beginning of the article, communication lines could be disabled and the people who had the authority to issue the decisive order could be destroyed. But you never know what could happen in the chaos that would certainly have arisen after a nuclear strike?

The logic of the "Dead Hand" involved the regular collection and processing of a gigantic amount of information. From all kinds of sensors received a variety of information. For example, about the state of communication lines with a higher command post: there is a connection - there is no connection. About the radiation situation in the surrounding area: the normal level of radiation is an increased level of radiation. About the presence of people at the starting position: there are people - there are no people. About registered nuclear explosions and so on and so forth.

The "dead hand" had the ability to analyze changes in the military and political situation in the world - the system evaluated the commands received over a certain period of time, and on this basis could conclude that something was wrong in the world. In a word, it was a smart thing. When the system believed that its time had come, it activated and launched a command to prepare for the launch of the rockets.

Moreover, the "Dead Hand" could not begin active operations in peacetime. Even if there was no communication, even if the entire combat crew left the starting position, there were still a lot of other parameters that would block the system.

The Perimeter system, with its main component, the Dead Hand, was put into service in 1983. The first information about it became known in the West only in the early 1990s, when some of the developers of this system moved there. On October 8, 1993, The New York Times published an article by its columnist Bruce Blair, "The Russian Doomsday Machine", in which, for the first time, information about the control system of the Russian missile forces appeared in the open press. At the same time, its top-secret name, "Perimeter", was first reported, and a new concept entered the English language - "dead hand" ("dead hand"). Some in the West called the "Perimeter" system immoral, but at the same time even its most vehement critics were forced to admit that it is, in fact, the only deterrent that gives real guarantees that a potential adversary will refuse to launch a preventive nuclear strike.

mountain "Kosvinsky stone" silo UR-100N UTTH

No wonder they say that fear rules the world. And as for immorality, then ... what is the "immorality" of a retaliatory strike? The Perimeter system is a backup command system for all branches of the armed forces armed with nuclear warheads. It is designed to be especially resistant to all the damaging factors of nuclear weapons, and it is almost impossible to disable it. Its task is to decide on a retaliatory strike on its own, without the participation (or with minimal participation) of a person. Only if the key components of the command system "Kazbek" ("nuclear suitcase") and the communication lines of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) are destroyed by the first strike in accordance with the "highly moral" concepts of "Limited Nuclear War" and "Decapitation Strike" , developed in the USA. In peacetime, the main components of the Perimeter system are in standby mode. They assess the situation by processing the data coming from the measuring posts.

In addition to the extreme operation algorithm described above, the "Perimeter" also had intermediate modes. One of them is worth talking about in more detail.

On November 13, 1984, the 15A11 command missile, created in Dnepropetrovsk, was tested at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, all American intelligence facilities worked in a very busy mode. The command rocket was the intermediate option mentioned above. It was planned to be used in the event that communication between the command and missile units scattered throughout the country was completely interrupted. It was then that it was supposed to give an order from the General Staff in the Moscow region or from a reserve command post in Leningrad to launch 15A11. The missile was supposed to launch from the Kapustin Yar test site or from a mobile launcher, fly over those regions of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan where the missile units were stationed, and give them the command to take off.

On a November day in 1984, this is exactly what happened: the command rocket issued a command to prepare and launch the R-36M (15A14) from Baikonur - which later became the legendary "Satan". Well, then everything happened as usual: "Satan" took off, rose into space, a training warhead separated from it, which hit a training target at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka. (Detailed technical characteristics of the command rocket, if this question is of particular interest to someone, can be found in books that have been published in abundance in Russian and English in recent years.)

In the early 1970s, taking into account the real possibilities of highly effective methods of electronic suppression by a potential adversary of the strategic missile forces combat control means, it became a very urgent task to ensure the delivery of combat orders from the highest levels of command (the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces Directorate) to command posts and individual launchers of strategic missiles standing on combat duty in case of emergency.

The idea arose to use for these purposes, in addition to the existing communication channels, a special command missile equipped with a powerful radio transmitter, launched during a special period and giving commands to launch all missiles on combat duty throughout the USSR.

The development of a special command missile system, called the "Perimeter", was assigned to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau by the Decree of the USSR Government N695-227 of August 30, 1974. Initially, it was planned to use the MR-UR100 (15A15) rocket as the base rocket, later they settled on the MR-UR100 UTTKh (15A16) rocket. The rocket, modified in terms of the control system, received the index 15A11.

The cover of the compartment with unattended equipment is impenetrable, which is not known for certain

In December 1975 a draft design of a command rocket was completed. A special warhead was installed on the rocket, which had the index 15B99, which included the original radio engineering system developed by the OKB LPI. To ensure the conditions for its functioning, the warhead during the flight had to have a constant orientation in space. A special system for calming, orienting and stabilizing it was developed using cold compressed gas (taking into account the experience of developing a propulsion system for the Mayak SHS), which significantly reduced the cost and time of its creation and development. The production of SGCh 15B99 was organized at the NPO "Strela" in Orenburg.

After ground testing of new technical solutions in 1979. LCI of the command rocket began. At NIIP-5, and sites 176 and 181, two experimental mine launchers were put into operation. In addition, a special command post was created at site 71, equipped with newly developed unique combat control equipment to ensure remote control and launch of a command missile on orders from the highest command and control levels of the Strategic Missile Forces. A shielded anechoic chamber equipped with equipment for autonomous testing of the radio transmitter was built at a special technical position in the assembly building.

Flight tests of the 15A11 rocket (see layout diagram) were carried out under the leadership of the State Commission, headed by Lieutenant General V.V. Korobushin, First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces.

The first launch of the 15A11 command missile with the equivalent of a transmitter was successfully carried out on December 26, 1979. The developed complex algorithms for interfacing all systems involved in the launch were tested, the possibility of providing the missile with a given flight path of the 15B99 warhead (trajectory peak at an altitude of about 4000 km, range 4500 km), the operation of all service systems of the warhead in the normal mode, the correctness of the adopted technical solutions was confirmed.

10 missiles were assigned for flight tests. In connection with the successful launches and the fulfillment of the assigned tasks, the State Commission considered it possible to be satisfied with seven launches.

During the tests of the "Perimeter" system, real launches of 15A14, 15A16, 15A35 missiles were carried out from combat facilities according to orders transmitted by the SSG 15B99 in flight. Previously, additional antennas were mounted on the launchers of these missiles and new receiving devices were installed. Subsequently, all launchers and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces underwent these modifications.

Launcher 15P716 - mine, automated, highly protected, type "OS". The key components of this system are the 15A11 command missile and receiving devices that receive orders and codes from command missiles. The 15A11 command missile of the Perimeter system is the only widely known component of the complex. They have the index 15A11, developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau on the basis of the MR UR-100U missiles (index 15A16). They are equipped with a special warhead (index 15B99) containing a radio command system developed by OKB LPI. The technical operation of the missiles is identical to the operation of the base rocket 15A16. Launcher - mine, automated, highly protected, most likely, type OS - modernized PU OS-84. The possibility of basing missiles in other types of launch silos is not ruled out.

Along with flight tests, ground testing of the performance of the entire complex was carried out under the influence of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion at the test site of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, in the testing laboratories of VNIIEF (Sarov), and at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site. The tests carried out confirmed the operability of the CS and SGS equipment at levels of nuclear explosion exposure exceeding those specified in the MO TTT.

Even during flight tests, a government decree set the task of expanding the functions solved by the command missile complex, bringing combat orders not only to the objects of the Strategic Missile Forces, but also to strategic missile submarines, long-range and naval missile-carrying aircraft at airfields and in the air, points management of the Strategic Missile Forces, Air Force and Navy.

LCI of the command missile was completed in March 1982. In January 1985, the complex was put on combat duty. For more than 10 years, the command missile complex has successfully performed its important role in the defense of the state.

Many enterprises and organizations of various ministries and departments took part in the creation of the complex. The main ones are: NPO "Impulse" (V.I. Melnik), NPO AP (n.A. Pilyugin), KBSM (A.F. Utkin), TsKBTM (B.R. Aksyutin), MNIIRS (A.P. Bilenko), VNIIS (B.Ya. Osipov), Central Design Bureau "Geophysics" (G.F. Ignatiev), NII-4 MO (E.B. Volkov).

TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

There is no reliable information about the 15E601 "Perimeter" system, however, according to indirect data, it can be assumed that this is a complex expert system equipped with many communication systems and sensors. Probably, the system has the following principle of operation.

The system is located on the database and receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars. The system has its own stationary and mobile combat control centers. In these centers, the main component of the Perimeter system operates - an autonomous control and command system - a complex software package created on the basis of artificial intelligence, associated with a variety of communication systems and sensors that control the situation.

In peacetime, the main components of the system are in standby mode, monitoring the situation and processing the data coming from the measuring posts.

In the event of a threat of a large-scale attack using nuclear weapons, confirmed by the data of early warning systems for a missile attack, the Perimeter complex is automatically put on alert and begins to monitor the operational situation.

It is believed that the system works like this. "Perimeter" is on constant combat duty, it receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars for missile attacks. Apparently, the system has its own independent command posts, in no way (outwardly) indistinguishable from many similar points of the Strategic Missile Forces. According to some reports, there are 4 such points, they are spaced a long distance and duplicate each other's functions.

At these points, the most important - and most secret - component of the "Perimeter", an autonomous control and command system, operates. It is believed that this is a complex software package created on the basis of artificial intelligence. Receiving data on negotiations on the air, the radiation field and other radiation at control points, information on early detection systems for launches, seismic activity, it is able to draw conclusions about the fact of a massive nuclear attack.

If the "situation is ripe", the system itself is transferred to a state of full combat readiness. Now she needs the last factor: the absence of regular signals from the usual command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces. If the signals have not been received for some time, the "Perimeter" launches the Apocalypse.

Command missiles 15A11 are released from the mines. Created on the basis of the MR UR-100 intercontinental missiles (launch weight 71 tons, flight range up to 11 thousand km, two stages, liquid-propellant engine), they carry a special warhead. By itself, it is harmless: it is a radio engineering system developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. These missiles, rising high into the atmosphere, flying over the territory of the country, broadcast launch codes for all nuclear missile weapons.

They also work automatically. Imagine a submarine standing at the pier: almost the entire crew on the shore has already died, and only a few confused watch submariners are on board. She suddenly comes to life. Without any outside interference, having received a launch signal from highly secret receiving devices, the nuclear arsenal sets in motion. The same thing happens in immobilized mine installations, and in strategic aviation. A retaliatory strike is inevitable: it is probably unnecessary to add that the Perimeter is designed to be especially resistant to all the damaging factors of nuclear weapons. It is almost impossible to disable it reliably.

antenna radio channel of the combat control system

The system tracks:
. the presence and intensity of negotiations on the air on military frequencies,
. information from the SPRN,
. receiving telemetry signals from the Strategic Missile Forces posts,
. the level of radiation on the surface and in the vicinity,
. regular occurrence of point sources of powerful ionizing and electromagnetic radiation along key coordinates, coinciding with the sources of short-term seismic disturbances in the earth's crust (which corresponds to the pattern of multiple ground-based nuclear strikes),
. the presence of living people at the CP.

Based on the correlation of these factors, the system probably makes the final decision about the fact of a massive nuclear attack and the need for a retaliatory nuclear strike.

Another proposed variant of the system's operation - when receiving information about the first signs of a missile attack from the early warning system, the first persons of the state could put the system into combat mode. After that, if within a certain time the CP of the system does not receive a signal to stop the combat algorithm, then the procedure for delivering a retaliatory nuclear strike is initialized. Thus, the possibility of making a decision on a retaliatory strike in the event of a false alarm was completely excluded and it was guaranteed that even the destruction of all those who had the authority to issue a command to conduct launches would not be able to prevent a nuclear retaliatory strike.

If the sensor components of the system confirm with sufficient certainty the fact of a massive nuclear strike, and the system itself loses contact with the main command nodes of the Strategic Missile Forces for a certain time, the Perimeter system initiates the procedure for delivering a retaliatory nuclear strike, even bypassing the Kazbek system, better known for its the most noticeable element, the Cheget subscriber set, as a "nuclear briefcase".

After receiving an order from the VZU of the Strategic Missile Forces to a special command post, or at the command of an autonomous control and command system that is part of the Perimeter system, command missiles (15A11, and later 15Zh56 and 15Zh75) are launched. The command missiles are equipped with a radio command CMS, which transmits in flight a control signal and launch codes for launching to all carriers of strategic nuclear weapons located on the database.

To receive signals from the command rockets, all KP, PZKP, PKP rp and rdn, as well as APU, except for the complexes of the Pioneer family and 15P020 of all modifications, were equipped with special RBU receivers of the Perimeter system. At the stationary TsKP of the Navy, Air Force, KP fleets and air armies, at the end of the 80s, equipment 15E646-10 of the "Perimeter" system was installed, incl. capable of receiving signals from command rockets. Further, orders for the use of nuclear weapons were brought through their specific means of communication for the Navy and Air Force. The receiving devices are hardware-linked to the control and launch equipment, providing immediate autonomous execution of the launch order in a fully automatic mode, providing a guaranteed retaliatory strike against the enemy even in the event of the death of all personnel.

COMPOUND

The main elements of the Perimeter system:
- an autonomous command system, which is part of stationary and mobile combat control centers;
- complexes of command missiles.

Subdivisions that are part of the Perimeter system:

URU GSh - control radio nodes of the GSh VS, presumably:
URU GSh VS:
624th PRRC, military unit 44684.1 US General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, (56 ° 4 "58.07" N 37 ° 5 "20.68" E)

URU Strategic Missile Forces - control radio centers of the General Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation, presumably:
URU General Staff Strategic Missile Forces
140th PRRTs, military unit 12407, PRRTs of the General Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces
143562, Moscow region, Istra district, pos. Voskhod (Novopetrovskoe) (55° 56" 18.14"N 36° 27" 19.96"E)

Stationary CBU - stationary combat control center (CBU) of the "Perimeter" system, 1231 CBU, military unit 20003, object 1335, Sverdlovsk region, pos. Kytlym (mountain Kosvinsky stone);

Mobile CBU - mobile combat control center (PCC) of the Perimeter system, complex 15V206:

1353 CBU, military unit 33220, Sumy region, Glukhov, 43rd RD (military unit 54196, Romny), 43rd RA (military unit 35564, Vinnitsa), 1990 - 1991. In 1991 he was relocated to 59th rd, Kartaly.

1353 CBU, military unit 32188, call sign "Pecker", Kartaly, 1353 CBU was part of the 59th division, but due to its peculiarities and the nature of the tasks performed, it was directly subordinate to the General Staff of the RV, 1991 - 1995;
In 1995, 1353 CBU was included in the 59th district (military unit No. 68547, Kartaly), 31st RA (military unit 29452, Orenburg).
In 2005, 1353 CBU was disbanded along with the 59th division.
1193 CBU, military unit 49494, Nizhny Novgorod region, Dalnee Konstantinovo-5 (Surovatikha), 2005 - ...;

15P011 - 15A11 command missile complex.
510th rp, BRK-6, military unit 52642, 7th RD (military unit 14245, Vypolzovo (Bologoe-4, ZATO Ozerny)) 27th RA (military unit 43176, Vladimir), January 1985 - June 1995;

There is also evidence that earlier the Perimeter system, along with 15A11 missiles, included command missiles based on the Pioneer IRBM. Such a mobile complex with "pioneer" command missiles was called "Gorn". Complex index - 15P656, missiles - 15ZH56. It is known about at least one subdivision of the Strategic Missile Forces, which was armed with the Gorn complex - the 249th missile regiment, stationed in the city of Polotsk, Vitebsk region of the 32nd missile division (Postavy), from March-April 1986 to 1988 was on combat duty with a mobile complex of command missiles.

15P175 "Siren" - a mobile ground missile system of command missiles (PGRK KR).

In December 1990, in the 8th Missile Division (Yurya), a regiment (commanded by Colonel S. I. Arzamastsev) took up combat duty with a modernized command missile system, called "Perimeter-RTs", which includes a command missile , created on the basis of the RT-2PM Topol ICBM.

Mobile ground missile system of command missiles (PGRK KR).
8th RD (military unit 44200, Yurya-2), 27th RA (military unit 43176, Vladimir), 01.10.2005 - ...

76th rp (military unit 49567, BSP-3):
1 and 2 GPP - 1st division
3 GPP and GBU - 2nd division

304th rp (military unit 21649, BSP-31):
4 and 5 GPP - 1st division
6 GPP and GBU - 2nd division

776th RP (military unit 68546, BSP-18):
7th and 8th GPP - 1st division
9 GPP and GBU - 2nd division

After being put on combat duty, the 15E601 "Perimeter" system was periodically used during command and staff exercises.

In November 1984, after the launch of the 15A11 command rocket and the launch of the 15B99 SSG on the passive part of the trajectory, the SGS issued a command to launch the 15A14 missile (R-36M, RS-20A, SS-18 "Satan") from the NIIP-5 test site (Baikonur Cosmodrome) . In the future, everything happened as expected - the launch, the development of all stages of the 15A14 rocket, the separation of the training warhead, hitting the calculated square at the Kura training ground, in Kamchatka.

In December 1990, a modernized system was adopted, called the "Perimeter-RC", which worked until June 1995, when, under the START-1 agreement, the complex was removed from combat duty. It is quite possible that the Perimeter complex should be modernized so that it can quickly respond to a strike by non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles.

According to unverified reports, the system was already returned to combat duty in 2001 or 2003.

And some more evidence on this topic:

« In the USSR, a system was developed that became known as the "Dead Hand". What did it mean? If a nuclear attack was made on a country, and the Commander-in-Chief could not make any decision, among the intercontinental missiles that were at the disposal of the USSR, there were those that could be launched by the radio signal of the system commanding the battle”, - says the doctor of engineering sciences Petr Belov.

Using a complex system of sensors that measure seismic activity, air pressure and radiation to determine if the USSR was under a nuclear attack, Dead Hand provided the ability to launch a nuclear arsenal without anyone pushing the red button. If communication with the Kremlin had been lost and the computers had established the attack, the launch codes would have been set in motion, giving the USSR the opportunity to strike back after being destroyed.

« A system that can be automatically activated on the first hit of an enemy is really necessary. Its very presence makes it clear to the enemies that even if our command centers and decision-making systems are destroyed, we will have the opportunity to launch an automated retaliatory strike.", - said the former head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov.

During the Cold War, the US had its own "fallback" codenamed "Mirror". The crews were constantly in the air for three decades with the task of controlling the sky if control of the ground was lost due to a surprise attack. The main difference between "Dead Hand" and "Mirror" is that the Americans relied on people to warn them of the attack. After the Cold War, the United States abandoned this system, although it is still not clear whether a Soviet version exists. Those who know about this avoid talking about this topic. " I can't talk about it because I don't know about the current state of affairs.", - says Ivashov.

"Operation Looking Glass" ("Mirror") - air command posts (VKP) of the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) on Boeing EC-135C aircraft (11 units), and later, from July 1989, on E-6B " Mercury" (Boeing 707-320) (16 units). 24 hours a day, for more than 29 years, from February 3, 1961 to June 24, 1990, two Looking Glass planes were constantly in the air - one over the Atlantic, the other over the Pacific Ocean. A total of 281,000 hours spent in the air. The crews of the CPSU, consisting of 15 people, among them at least one general, were in constant readiness to take command of the strategic nuclear forces in the event of the defeat of ground command posts.

The main difference between "Perimeter" and "Mirror" is that the Americans relied on people who would take command and decide on a retaliatory nuclear strike. After the end of the Cold War, the United States abandoned this database carrying system and is currently on duty at 4 air bases in constant readiness for take-off.

Also in the United States there was a complex of command missiles - UNF Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS). The system was first delivered to the DB on July 11, 1963 at launch sites at Wiesner, West Point, and Tekama, Nebraska, as part of three MER-6A Blue Scout Junior missiles. The system was on the database until December 01, 1967. Subsequently, the upgraded ERCS was based on the Minuteman series missiles - LEM-70 (based on Minuteman I since 1966) and LEM-70A (based on Minuteman II since 1967) (Project 494L). The upgraded system was delivered to the database on October 10, 1967 at the Whiteman AFB base, Missouri, as part of ten silo launchers. The system was removed from the database at the beginning of 1991.

Imagine the worst possible scenario. The world, teetering on the very brink of war, collapsed. The patience of the "Western democracies" was exhausted, and a preemptive nuclear strike was launched on the territory of the Soviet Union. Deadly missiles were launched from silo launchers, from submarines and aircraft. The full power of many thousands of warheads fell upon cities and military installations. And while the Soviet leadership, in shock and panic, found out what happened, whether it was a mistake, and how to fix the situation, there was nothing to fix.

The main cities, industrial and military centers, command and communication centers were destroyed by a single massive strike. The mighty nuclear arsenal of the USSR simply did not have time to use: the command was not received, and in the absence of a leading center, the dangerous rival is blind, dumb and motionless.

But at the very moment when NATO generals raise their glasses of victory, something unimaginable happens. Silenced, it seemed, forever the enemy seemed to come to life. Thousands of missiles rushed towards Western countries - and before the generals had time to finish off a bottle of champagne, many of them, breaking through the built missile defense with such efforts, wiped out large cities, military bases, command centers. Nobody won.

So it worked system "Perimeter", which received a chilling name in the Western press "Dead Hand", the last argument of the Soviet (and now Russian) state. Despite the large number and variety of “Doomsday Machines” invented by science fiction writers, which guarantee retribution to any enemy and are able to reach and destroy him with a guarantee, only the “Perimeter” apparently exists in reality.

However, "Perimeter" is a system kept in such a strict secret that there are some doubts about its existence, and all information about its composition and functions should be taken with a great deal of doubt. So what is known?

The Perimeter system launches an automatic massive nuclear strike. It guarantees the launch of submarine, air and mine-based ballistic missiles in the event that ALL points capable of ordering a retaliatory attack are destroyed by the enemy. It is completely independent from other means of communication and command systems, even from the notorious "nuclear suitcase" of the Kazbek system.

The system was put on combat duty in 1985, and five years later it was modernized, was named "Perimeter-RC" and served for another 5 years. Then, under the START-1 agreement, she was removed from duty - and her current condition is unknown. According to some sources, it can be “turned on” again after the START-1 expires, and according to others, it has already been returned to its current state.

It is believed that the system works like this. "Perimeter" is on constant combat duty, it receives data from tracking systems, including from early warning radars about a missile attack. Apparently, the system has its own independent command posts, outwardly indistinguishable from many similar points of the Strategic Missile Forces. According to some reports, there are 4 such points, they are spaced a long distance and duplicate each other's functions.

In an interview with Wired magazine, one of the developers of the system, Vladimir Yarynich, reports the following information about the algorithm of the Perimeter system: “It was designed to lie dormant until a high-ranking official activates it in a crisis. Then she would start monitoring a network of sensors - seismic, radiation, atmospheric pressure - for signs of nuclear explosions.

Before launching a retaliatory strike, the system would have to check four "ifs": if the system was activated, it would first try to determine if a nuclear weapon had been used on Soviet territory. If this turned out to be true, the system would check the presence of communication with the General Staff. If there was communication, the system would automatically shut down after some time - from 15 minutes to an hour - passed without further signs of attack, assuming that officials capable of ordering a counterattack were still alive.

But if there had been no communication, Perimeter would have decided that Doomsday had arrived, and immediately transferred the right to decide on the launch to anyone who at that moment would be deep in a protected bunker, bypassing the usual numerous instances.

Command missiles 15A11 are released from the mines. Created on the basis of the MR UR-100 intercontinental missiles (launch weight 71 tons, flight range up to 11 thousand km, two stages, liquid-propellant engine), they carry a special warhead. In itself, it is harmless: it is a radio engineering system developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. These missiles, rising high into the atmosphere, flying over the territory of the country, broadcast launch codes for all nuclear missile weapons. They also work automatically.

Imagine a submarine standing at the pier: almost the entire crew on the shore has already died, and only a few confused watch submariners are on board. She suddenly comes to life. Without any outside interference, having received a launch signal from highly secret receiving devices, the nuclear arsenal sets in motion. The same thing happens in immobilized mine installations.

A retaliatory strike is inevitable: it is probably unnecessary to add that the Perimeter system is designed to be especially resistant to all damaging factors of nuclear weapons. It is almost impossible to disable it reliably.

After being put on combat duty, the Perimeter complex worked and was periodically used during command and staff exercises. The command missile system with the 15A11 missile was on combat duty until June 1995, when, under the START-1 agreement, the complex was removed from combat duty. According to other sources, this happened on September 1, 1995, when the 510th missile regiment armed with command missiles was taken off duty and disbanded in the 7th missile division (vypolzovo village).

This event coincided with the completion of the withdrawal of the MR UR-100 missiles from the Strategic Missile Forces and the process of re-equipping the 7th RD with the Topol mobile ground-based missile system that began in December 1994. In December 1990, in the 8th Missile Division (Yurya), a regiment with a modernized command missile system took up combat duty, dubbed "Perimeter-RC", which includes a command missile based on the RT-2PM Topol ICBM.

There is also evidence that earlier the Perimeter system, along with 15A11 missiles, included command missiles based on the Pioneer IRBM. Such a mobile complex with "pioneer" command missiles was called "Gorn". Complex index - 15P656, missiles - 15ZH56. It is known about at least one subdivision of the Strategic Missile Forces, which was armed with the Gorn complex - the 249th missile regiment, stationed in the city of Polotsk, Vitebsk region of the 32nd missile division (Postavy), from March-April 1986 to 1988 was on combat duty with a mobile complex of command missiles.

Organizations involved in the production of components and maintenance of the complex are experiencing funding difficulties. There is a high turnover of staff, resulting in a drop in the qualifications of staff. Despite this, the Russian leadership has repeatedly assured foreign states that there is no risk of accidental or unauthorized missile launches.

In the Western press, the system was given the name “dead hand” (dead hand). According to Wired magazine in 2009, the Perimeter system is operational and ready to strike back.

Alexey Chikurnikov, popmech.ru and ru.wikipedia.org