Among the variety of strategic launch systems that are in service with the leading countries of the world, the military railway missile system (abbreviated as BZHRK) today is undergoing a rebirth. A number of reasons contribute to this, but before touching on them, let us consider what this development of the modern defense industry is like. Along the way, we will try to find out what happened to the nuclear trains of the past.
What is BZHRK?
First of all, this is a train, in the wagons of which are not passengers who are in a hurry for a vacation or a business trip, and not the goods expected in different parts of the country, but deadly missiles equipped with nuclear warheads to make their attacks more effective. Their number varies depending on the size of the complex.
However, there are passengers - these are technical personnel serving the military railway missile system, as well as units whose mission it is to guard it. Part of the wagons is designed to accommodate all kinds of technological and other systems for the successful launch of missiles and target destruction anywhere in the world.
Since such a train, stuffed with a deadly cargo, is akin to a warship, it is often given a name, which is then used as a proper name. For example, 15P961 "Well done." If the first part of the name is not quite convenient in pronunciation, and it is not immediately remembered, then the second is quite harmonious and familiar to the ear. I even want to add the word “kind” to it, but in relation to a complex that can destroy an average European state in a matter of minutes, this adjective is hardly acceptable.
A dozen "Well done" on guard of the Motherland
There were twelve such dashing "Well done" in the period from 1987 to 1994 in our country. All of them were on combat duty of the Strategic Missile Forces and, in addition to the main name, had another one, which was found only in the technical documentation - RT 23 UTX. Over the next years, they were one after another withdrawn from service, dismantled, so that by 2007 only two of them remained in their museum of armed forces.
By the way, RT 23 UTTX became the only complex in the Soviet Union put into serial production. The development of such combat systems was carried out for several decades, but only in the eighties they were brought to the stage that allowed them to be adopted. To maintain secrecy, trains of this type were given the symbol “train number zero”.
American developments in the same field
It is known that during the years of the Cold War, foreign, in particular American, designers also worked on the creation of trains carrying atomic death in their cars. As a result of the successful activities of Soviet intelligence, as well as a veil of secrecy surrounding everything that was connected with the defense industry, in those years the general reader was much more aware of their developments than the achievements of domestic gunsmiths.
What did our valiant “shtirlits” inform in their reports? Thanks to them, it is known that in the early sixties in the United States appeared the first solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile, called the "Minuteman". Compared to its liquid fuel predecessors, it had a number of significant advantages. First of all, there was no need for pre-start refueling, in addition, its resistance to shaking and vibration, which inevitably arose during transportation, significantly increased.
This made it possible to launch missiles directly from moving railway platforms and make them practically invulnerable in case of war. The only difficulty was that the missiles could only be launched in strictly defined, specially prepared places, since their guidance system was tied to pre-calculated coordinates.
America in the rays of the "Big Star"
A significant breakthrough that allowed the creation of a train with nuclear missiles in the United States was a large-scale operation, carried out in 1961 and under the secret name of "Big Star". As part of this event, the trains, which were the prototypes of the future missile complex, moved across the entire network of railways operating in the country.
The purpose of the exercises was to test their mobility and the possibility of maximum dispersal throughout the United States. At the end of the operation, its results were summarized, and on their basis a train was constructed, the nuclear arsenal of which was five Minuteman missiles.
Refusal of an already completed project
However, this development was not destined to enter service. Initially, it was assumed that in 1962 the defense industry of the country would produce thirty such trains, armed with a total of one hundred and fifty missiles. But upon completion of the design work, the project cost was considered excessively high, and as a result it was abandoned.
At that time, mine launchers of solid-fuel "Minutemans" were recognized as more effective, and they were preferred. Their indisputable advantage was the low cost, as well as fairly reliable protection from Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles, which did not have the accuracy required to destroy them in those years.
As a result, the project, on which American engineers worked throughout 1961, was closed, and the trains created on its basis were used to transport the same "Minutmen" from the shops of manufacturers to the bases where they were deployed mine.
Recent Developments undertaken in the USA
A new impetus for the creation in America of trains capable of carrying nuclear weapons was the emergence in 1986 of the new generation of heavy intercontinental missile LGM-118A, also known by its shorter name MX.
By this time, the striking ability of Soviet missiles designed to destroy enemy launchers had significantly increased. In this regard, special attention was paid to the issue of MX placement security.
After a long debate between supporters of the traditional mine deployment and their opponents, a compromise was reached, which resulted in fifty missiles placed in the mines, and the same number on the platforms of a new, specially prepared for this purpose composition.
However, this development did not have a future. In the early nineties, thanks to the democratic transformations that took place in our country, the Cold War ended, and the program for creating railway nuclear complexes, having lost its relevance, was closed. Currently, such developments are not conducted and, apparently, are not planned for the coming years.
New development of CB "Southern"
However, we will return to our homeland. Now, it is no longer military secret that the first nuclear train of the USSR began to be created in accordance with an order of the Ministry of Defense, signed in January 1969. The development of this unique project was entrusted to the Yuzhnoye design bureau, in which then two remarkable Soviet scientists worked - academicians, siblings Alexei Fedorovich and Vladimir Fedorovich Utkin. They led the work on a new project.
According to the general idea, the 15Z961 Molodzhka BZHRK (military railway missile system) they created was intended to retaliate against the enemy, since his mobility and increased survivability made it possible to hope that he could survive in the event of a sudden nuclear attack by the enemy. The only place where the rockets necessary for its rigging were made was the Mechanical Plant in Pavlograd. This most important strategic object was hiding in those years under the faceless signboard of Yuzhmash Production Association.
Difficulties encountered on the way of developers
In his memoirs, V.F. Utkin wrote that the task assigned to them carried enormous difficulties. They consisted mainly in the fact that the complex was supposed to move along ordinary railroad tracks, along with other trains, and even the weight of one rocket along with its launcher was one hundred and fifty tons.
The creators of the project faced a mass of seemingly insoluble problems. For example, how to place a rocket in a railway carriage and how to give it a vertical position at the right time? How to ensure transportation safety when it comes to nuclear charge? Will the enormous load created during the passage of the train withstand standard rails, embankments and bridges? Finally, will the train stand at the moment of rocket launch ? To all these and many other questions, the designers had to find comprehensive and unambiguous answers.
Ghost trains and those who controlled them
The very next year, the train, whose nuclear arsenal consisted of 15Zh61 missiles, was tested in various climatic regions of the country - from the deserts of Central Asia to the polar latitudes. Eighteen times he went on the country's railways, having made a total of half a million kilometers and making combat launches of his missiles at the Plesetsk cosmodrome.
Following the first train, indicated in the schedule under the zero number, its twins also appeared. As the tests passed, each such ghost train stood on alert in one of the missile regiments of the country. The personnel serving it consisted of seventy military personnel.
Civilians were not allowed. Even the positions of the drivers and their assistants were taken by warrant officers and officers specially trained to train. But the nuclear charge of the missiles was under the vigilant supervision of specialists. By the beginning of 1991, the USSR already had three missile divisions, which were armed with railway missile systems.
They constituted a powerful nuclear fist, capable, if necessary, of crushing any enemy. Suffice it to say that each such division had twelve trains carrying nuclear missiles. In those years, the USSR Ministry of Defense did a great job. Within a radius of one and a half thousand kilometers from the locations of the regiments, the standard railway rails were replaced by heavier ones capable of supporting a missile train, the nuclear load of which required additional precautions.
Temporary suspension of BZHRK programs
Significant changes in the patrol routes of the BZHRK were made after the meeting of M.S. Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher in 1991. Since that time, according to the agreement reached, not a single ghost train has left its place of permanent deployment, nevertheless remaining in service as a stationary combat unit. As a result of a number of agreements signed in subsequent years, Russia was obliged to withdraw from service all missiles based on railway trains, thereby abandoning this type of strategic weapon.
Barguzin (BZHRK)
However, it is at least premature to talk about Russia's complete abandonment of missile systems installed on trains. At the end of 2013, the media reported that, in response to a number of American weapons programs, work on the creation of missile-carrying trains was resumed in our country.
In particular, there was talk of a new development, performed on an advanced technological basis, called “Barguzin” (BZHRK). In all its parameters and purpose, it does not fall under the list of restrictions established by the START-3 international treaty, and therefore its production does not conflict with international law.
According to reports, it is planned to place a missile carrying a nuclear charge and equipped with a separating warhead in a car disguised as a standard railway refrigerator with a length of twenty-four meters.
The Barguzin complex is supposed to be equipped with Yars-type missiles, formerly based on tractors. The advantage of railway deployment in this case is quite obvious. If ground installations are easily detected from space, then this BZHRK system is indistinguishable from a conventional freight train even upon closer inspection. In addition, moving a railway missile system is several times cheaper than a ground based one based on tractors of various types.
Advantages and disadvantages of BZHRK
Concluding the conversation about railway missile systems, it is appropriate to dwell on the generally recognized advantages and disadvantages of this type of weapon. Among its indisputable advantages, experts note the high mobility of rolling stock, which, by changing its location, can overcome up to a thousand kilometers in a day, which is many times higher than the similar performance of tractors. In addition, one should take into account the high carrying capacity of the train, capable of simultaneously transporting hundreds of tons.
But you can not discount the inherent certain disadvantages. Among them, it is worth highlighting the difficulty with disguising the train caused by the peculiarities of its configuration, which simplifies the composition detection using modern satellite reconnaissance equipment. In addition, compared to the launch mines, the train is less protected from the effects of blast waves. In the event of a nuclear explosion conducted somewhere in the vicinity, it may be damaged or capsized.
And, finally, a significant minus of using rolling stock as a carrier for missile systems is the inevitable wear and tear of the railroad track in such cases, which impedes further operation of both the BZHRK itself and ordinary trains. However, modern technologies make it possible to successfully solve most of these problems, and thereby open the prospect of further development and modernization of missile-carrying trains.