MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Only Russian enterprises will be involved in the effort to develop a new railway-based combat missile system, Aide to the Strategic Missile Force Commander Igor Denisov said on Tuesday.
"We earlier had a combat railway missile complex. It was created with the participation of Ukrainian enterprises. In the early 2000s, the work on its creation was completed. Today a new design and development effort has been launched to envisage exclusively Russian cooperation. As of today, this design and development work is at its first stage," Denisov said.
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- Work on Russia's railway-based Barguzin missile in progress — commander
According to data of Russia’s Defense Ministry, the first missile regiment of the railway-based missile complex was placed on combat duty on October 20, 1987.
The combat missile train is a railway echelon consisting of two-three locomotives and special railway wagons resembling refrigerator and passenger rail cars, which accommodated transport and launch containers with intercontinental ballistic missiles, launch command posts, technological and technical systems, security means, personnel and life-support systems.
The works to develop the combat railway missile complex with the RS-22 (NATO reporting name: SS-24 Scalpel) missile began in the mid-1970s at the Yuzhnoye design bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. These complexes were assembled in Ukraine as well.
Overall, three missile divisions were deployed to include 12 train regiments. All of them were armed with 36 missiles, each of them carrying 10 powerful nuclear warheads.
As the warranty period for the operation of RS-22 missiles and the railway complexes expired, a decision was taken to liquidate them.
On August 12, 2005, the last combat railway missile complex was withdrawn from combat duty.
According to Russian Strategic Missile Force Commander, Col.-Gen. Sergei Karakayev, the newest combat railway missile complex Barguzin "will considerably surpass its predecessor by accuracy, missile flight range and other characteristics, which will help this system to stay operational with the Strategic Missile Force for many years, at least until 2040."
Each train will be capable of carrying six RS-24 Yars ballistic missiles.