The new Russian Army railroad-mounted missile system will be equipped with Yars missile 1912134

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Defence & Security News - Russia
 
 
Thursday, December 19, 2013 11:31 AM
 
The new Russian Army railroad-mounted missile system will be equipped with Yars missile.
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are preparing to revive railroad-based missiles and counter the US’s Conventional Prompt Global Strike concept. A blueprint of the modernized “nuclear train” will be presented in the first half of 2014. This new railway missile platform will be equipped with Yars missile.
     
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces are preparing to revive railroad-based missiles and counter the US’s Conventional Prompt Global Strike concept. A blueprint of the modernized “nuclear train” will be presented in the first half of 2014. This new railway missile platform will be equipped with Yars missile.
The idea of using railroads to move around missiles is not new. Koval noted that the first unit of railway-based missile systems was put on combat duty in Kostroma in October 1987, and removed from service in 2005.
     

"It will be fitted with a solid-fuel missile, Yars type, with multiple warheads. The new missile weighs 47 tons while the previous missile weight was 110 tonnes," said the general Karakaïev, commander of the Russian Stategic Ballistic Forces.

The ‘New START’ treaty signed by presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama in 2011 does not limit the use of railway-based systems, so in 2012 Russia reconsidered development of a new version of a railway-based strategic missile system.

One year later, Russia’s Defense Ministry announced the new railroad missile system would be developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology – the same institute that developed the sea-based Bulava nuclear missile for the latest generation of Borey-class submarine strategic nuclear missile carriers.

The Institute is expected to present a blueprint of the system within the next six months.

The new railroad-mounted missile system will be towed by a train with two or three diesel locomotives and specialized railcars, which look like refrigerator or passenger railcars, but carry intercontinental ballistic missiles, together with command posts.

U.S. officials said the new system would be able to strike any target around the world in less than one hour with a conventional warhead.

The idea of using railroads to move around missiles is not new. Koval noted that the first unit of railway-based missile systems was put on combat duty in Kostroma in October 1987, and removed from service in 2005.