In the near future, the strategic Missile forces (strategic missile forces) will receive new ballistic missiles. They will complement a group of 320 vehicles capable of hitting any target in the other hemisphere of the planet with absolute probability. Thanks to this, the share of modern complexes in the strategic missile forces will be increased to 81%. And by 2024, it should reach 100% in the military. Thus, they "will cross the line beyond which there will be no Soviet-made missile systems left in the combat composition." This was announced on the eve of the strategic missile forces day, which is celebrated on December 17, said the commander of the military branch Sergey Karakaev.
According to the military commander, the missile regiments are currently being actively re-equipped with modern YARS and Avangard complexes, and from 2022 onwards with the Sarmat heavy ballistic missile. Only until the end of this year, three regiments of Intercontinental ballistic missiles will take up combat duty. This is approximately 30 new missiles.
By data of the site "Strategic nuclear weapons of Russia", at the beginning of 2020, the strategic missile forces were supposedly armed with 320 missile systems (in 2017, there were 286 of them) of five different types. These are the Topol monoblock missiles, the Voevoda R-36 MUTTH ("Satan" according to the Western classification), and two UR-100 NUTTH with the Avangard hypersonic warhead, as well as 229 of the most modern Topol-M and YARS mine-based and mobile vehicles. Total-1,181 deployed nuclear warheads, although, according to the start-3 Treaty, the Russian Federation can have no more than 1,550 of them. So the room for maneuver for Russia is still there. Moreover, if we calculate how many "Soviet" vehicles need to be replaced in the land grouping of the nuclear deterrent forces, we can say that the fleet has been updated at a "Stakhanov pace"in recent years.
Currently, 91 missiles produced during the Soviet period from 1985 to 1992 are on combat duty - these are 46 Voevod and 45 Topol. If all of them are to be decommissioned, then in four years Russia should produce 25 ballistic missiles a year. By Soviet standards, the task is not very difficult. In the period from 1965 to 1970 alone, more than one thousand intercontinental missiles of four types were put on alert. Today we are talking about only two types - "Yars" and "Sarmat".
As noted in an interview with NEWS.ru Vadim Kozyulin, a Professor at the Academy of Military Sciences, said that the reduction of types of ballistic missiles is a sign that in recent years a "Golden mean" has been found in the design of missile technology.
Of course, this is also due to the reduction in missile design bureaus. There were four of them in the USSR, today only two. The number of factories producing such equipment has also decreased. On the other hand, its modern qualities are an order of magnitude higher than that of the first Soviet missiles.
Vadim Kozyulin
According to the specialist, there are only two active developers of strategic missiles in the country: OJSC “Corporation“ Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering ”and AO State Rocket Center named after Academician V.P. Makeev from Miass. The former designed the Topol-M, Yars and the sea-based Bulava complexes, and the latter designed missiles for strategic nuclear submarines, the most modern of which are Sineva / Liner, and is now engaged in the Sarmat heavy truck. machines goes to two factories: the first - Votkinsk Machine Building, where they produce strategic missile systems "Yars" and "Bulava", and the second - Krasnoyarsk Machine Building, produces naval ballistic missiles for submarine missile carriers of Project 667BDRM "Sineva" / "Liner", and is also preparing to the release of "Sarmatov".
Former chief of the armament of the Russian defense Ministry in 1994-2000, Colonel-General Anatoly Sitnov stated NEWS.ru that the current success of the strategic missile forces ' rearmament is directly related to the 1996-2005 program.
"It was then that decisions were laid on the modern weapons systems that we have today. These missiles "Caliber" and operational-tactical complex "Iskander", and new marine and land-based strategic systems."
Anatoly Sitnov
former chief of the armament of the Armed forces (1994-2000), Colonel-General
But the main thing, according to him, is that Russia has a balanced nuclear triad consisting of land, sea and air parts. In its composition, the strategic missile forces play a major role in the event of a counter or preemptive nuclear strike, the Colonel-General noted.
Military expert Alexander Ivanin in a conversation with NEWS.ru he noted that today changes in the land grouping of strategic nuclear deterrence forces are associated not with its quantitative, but with its qualitative composition.
The Topol-M complex will be completely replaced with YARS missiles. The first machine was created during the time of the start-2 Treaty, which limited the number of nuclear warheads on land carriers. Therefore, on the Topol-M it is one, and on the new rocket created under the start-3 Treaty, there can be up to six of them. That is when a smaller number of missiles we can carry out the tasks of nuclear deterrence.
Alexander Ivanin
expert in the field of naval weapons
It's the same story with the Sarmat missile. It changes the cyclopean Soviet Voevoda complexes. Machines weighing 200 tons, capable of delivering up to 10 megaton-class nuclear warheads to the target. "Sarmat" is twice as light and, as claimed by the former Deputy Minister of defense, Deputy Prime Minister Yuri Borisov, sends the same number of warheads to the other hemisphere at a range of 11 thousand km. the Missile is able to withstand the space echelon of strike weapons. And the improved energy characteristics make it possible to equip it with additional means of overcoming the American missile defense SYSTEM. Such a missile can be launched from almost any region of the country, not only through the North pole, as it is now, but also through the South pole, which will make its flight non-interceptable for anti-missiles. The Americans have similar ones today only in Poland, Romania and Alaska.
As previously noted in conversation with NEWS.ru Director of the Institute of USA and Canada studies and a former head of information-analytical center of the defense Ministry, major-General in retirement Pavel Zolotarev, with the advent of the "Sarmatian" Russia "has actually secured the excess of the ability to overcome any national missile defense." According to the expert, thus, the "decapitation" of the Russian strategic nuclear forces control system by American medium-range Pershing II missiles becomes impossible.
Regardless of whether the new administration of US President Joe Biden extends the start-3 Treaty or not, Russia has already established a reliable system of Washington's nuclear deterrence. This question is not idle, since the US special envoy for arms control, Marshall Billingsley, does not hesitate to publicly state that the United States should not confirm the provision on the inadmissibility of nuclear war, which is contained in the joint us-Soviet statement of 1985. This only means that the White house wants to reserve the right to use nuclear missiles to wage wars. "YARS" and " Sarmatians — are a guarantee that the Americans will not take this step.
