Russia deploys 'Nuclear Train' to counter US missile shield

After the US activated the Aegis Ashore missile interceptor complex in Romania and started building a similar weapons complex in Poland, close to Russian territory, the Russian media talked a lot about the weapon that once caused headaches for US and NATO officials during the Cold War: the Barguzin nuclear train.

Russian military experts believe that Barguzin is one of the strong counterweights to NATO's BMD missile defense program being implemented in Europe. So what is this special weapon line that has a history dating back to the Cold War?

Strategic weapons give headaches to the US and NATO

Before the Barguzin was introduced, in the 1980s, the Soviet Union had developed a weapon with similar capabilities, the RT-23 Molodets intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). When it entered service in 1987, this weapon system was more successful than the Soviet military officials expected.

Illustration photo.

The Molodets nuclear train, with its shape identical to the freight trains that operated non-stop in the Soviet national railway system, was helpless against this type of weapon. The US satellite image analysis agency could not find traces of the Soviet nuclear trains using satellite images, spectral images (searching for traces of radioactive isotopes) and many other methods. The US even considered a plan to deploy disguised cargo containers, and install sophisticated surveillance equipment in the Soviet railway system to track the "ICBM train", but it was also helpless.

The Soviet and later Russian armies deployed 56 RT-23UTTh missile trains. This unique weapon system was only decommissioned in 2007 in compliance with the START II Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty between Russia and the United States.

Recently, when the US unilaterally withdrew from the ABM Treaty and increased the deployment of missile defense system components in Europe, Russia had to resume the program of developing nuclear trains. The result of this process was the Barguzin complex.

Compared to its “predecessor” RT-23 Molodets, Barguzin is integrated with new generation Russian military technology with better electronic countermeasures and stealth capabilities. Barguzin also inherits the Molodets’s operating method on Russia’s second largest railway system in the world. The system’s excellent mobility allows the Barguzin complex to travel more than 1,000km per day and cannot be tracked.

Each Barguzin nuclear train is equipped with 6 RS-24 Yars ICBM missiles that can be switched to combat mode within minutes. This factor can make missile defense systems similar to the type the US is deploying in Europe helpless.

Russia plans to put the Barguzin nuclear train into service in 2020. However, given the current situation, this deadline may be shortened.

America is "transferring fire" to Europe

Aegis Ashore complex, US deployed in Romania.

The Aegis Ashore system is actually the land-based version of the Aegis naval fire control system equipped on Arleigh Burke-class destroyers and Ticonderoga-class cruisers. The system combines the AN/SPY-1 multi-mission radar and guidance system and 24 Mk 41 multi-purpose vertical launch systems. According to US and NATO military officials, the launchers are equipped with SM-3 Block IB supersonic interceptor missiles. However, the Mk 41 launchers are also suitable for modern attack cruise missiles such as the Tomahawk, which is capable of carrying nuclear warheads.

Russian military experts assess that the operation of the Aegis Ashore complex in Deveselu, Romania is unlikely to affect the tactical and strategic missile units of the Russian Army in the European part of the territory. However, if 24 Mk 41 launchers equipped with cruise missiles attack, all civilian and military facilities in the southwestern region of Russia, including the Crimean peninsula, will be within range.

If the above scenario is true, it would violate the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty signed in 1987 between the US and the Soviet Union. This is an extremely dangerous factor for the common security of all of Europe.

According to qdnd.vn