Russias Terrifying Nuke Trains Will Be Roving The Rails By 2018 This new railway based missile platform is said to be named Barguzin after the strong eastern wind that blows off Lake Baikal. Russian news site RT reports that like its 12 Soviet-era Nuke Train predecessors, which were removed from service in 1993, Barguzin will also have its cars disguised as standard commercial refrigeration cars, although they will not need heavy steel reinforced wheels like past units. This is due to the fact that the new RS-24 Yars ICBM these trains will carry weighs half the weight of the RT-23 Molodets ICBM carried on Soviet-era Nuke Trains. Without the tell-tale reinforced running gear, the fact that these ICBM toting train cars will look exactly like normal refrigeration cars will make them nearly impossible to track, even by informants on the ground. Each of these new Railway Missile Complexes will hold six RS-24s, which are each capable of carrying four Multiple Independently Targeted Reentry Vehicles (MIRVs). This means that each train, of which five are currently planned, could hold 24 thermonuclear warheads, each able to take out a town of its own. That is a lot of apocalyptic firepower roving around the countryside on train tracks. The RS-24 in particular is not Russias most powerful ICBM, even the RT-23 Molodets that it replaces in the Nuke Train ICBM role carried over double the MIRVs, each with larger explosive yield options. Yet, for what the RS-24 lacks in punch it makes up for in accuracy and survivability. It speeds to its target at over mach 20, making it one of the fastest ICBMs in the world, this means that quicker reaction times are required when dealing with an RS-24 launch. In the end this equates into less enemy assets being dispersed once the RS-24s warheads hit their targets and less time for the enemy, in this case the US, to deploy its ballistic missile defenses. The RS-24 also has a shorter infrared launch footprint, making it harder to detect and track by space-based infrared early-warning satellites. The Yars also possess Russias most advanced decoy systems aimed at fooling Americas anti-ballistic missile systems and is rumored to be equipped with a highly-maneuverable post-boost vehicle. The RS-24s MIRVs are said to have a circular error probability of just 150 feet after flying some 7,500 miles to their target, making it very accurate ICBM, especially by Russian standards.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 13:55:06 +0000
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