Once considered the world's most secretive place, the Balabanovo-1 missile base has now been transformed into a museum open to the public for visits.
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| According to English Russia, the Russian Strategic Missile Academy, located within the Balabanovo-1 missile base, was once the training ground for thousands of officers and personnel for the Soviet and Russian strategic missile units. During the Cold War, it didn't even exist on maps and was heavily guarded, but that has changed now that Balabanovo-1 is open to tourists, allowing visitors to tour the training grounds of Russian missile troops. |
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| Since 2004, the Russian Ministry of Defense decided to transform part of the missile academy at Balabanovo-1 into a museum of Russian strategic missiles. By 2007, the Balabanovo-1 base itself had also been repurposed. |
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| The image shows the interior of a hangar where a Russian strategic missile unit is stationed, complete with combat components including a mobile command vehicle, the RT-2PM Topol mobile ballistic missile system, and logistical support vehicles. |
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| Balabanovo-1 base was established in 1948, but it wasn't until 1961 that it began to be converted to serve as a training ground for Soviet strategic missile troops. Pictured is a command vehicle and mobile launcher of the RT-2PM. |
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| The RT-2PM ballistic missile systems entered service in the Soviet and later Russian armies in the 1980s. Although still one of the main weapons of the Russian strategic missile forces, the RT-2PM has gradually become obsolete and is being replaced by the RT-2PM2 Topol-M. |
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| The launch support system for the RT-2PM is mounted on a specialized MAZ-543M Uragan chassis. |
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| Each RT-2PM missile weighs up to 45 tons, is over 29 meters long, has a maximum range of 10,000 km, and is equipped with a nuclear warhead with a destructive power of up to 800 kt. |
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| The RT-2PM uses a three-stage solid-fuel propulsion system with a flight speed of up to 25,000 km/h, equivalent to Mach 21, making it difficult to intercept by enemy air defense systems. With its inertial navigation and autonomous system, the RT-2PM has an accuracy deviation of only about 200 meters from its target. |
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| The RT-2PM mobile launcher is still functioning quite well, except that it's not carrying any missiles. |
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| In another corner of this museum is an exhibition of long-range ballistic missiles that once made a name for the Russian Strategic Missile Forces. |
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| We can see some fairly familiar names (from left to right): R-2, R-5M, R-12, R-14, R-16, R-9A, UR-100, R-36 and RT-2. |
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| They were all developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War to maintain nuclear deterrence against the United States and some Western European countries, and fortunately, they were never deployed to attack any nation. |
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| The image shows the final stage launch of the RT-2 intercontinental ballistic missile. It is deployed from underground launch platforms and its counterpart is the American Minuteman III missile. |
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| Here is a model of an underground launch bunker with up to 12 levels, containing a command and control center, living quarters for soldiers, its own electrical system, and fully capable of withstanding a nuclear attack. |
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| An image of the interior of a former Soviet ballistic missile launch silo. |
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| These Russian missile silos are completely impervious to external cyberattacks and use separate communication protocols from the central operational command center. Many units even receive orders via a special, encrypted landline telephone system. |
According to Knowledge
