In connection with the latest events in the world: the crisis of power and the armed conflict in Ukraine, the clash of interests and the activation of Islamic State militants in Syria and Libya, the problem of state security is becoming one of the most pressing international issues. At a time when every major country either already has nuclear capability or is preparing to acquire it, no one in the world can be completely sure of their future. And the more terrible and vague the future must seem to the citizens of Russia, the more countries join the sanctions and openly express their indignation at the actions of our country.
On the pages of numerous Western publications, in English-language social networks and blogs, there are already dozens of articles directly calling for the start of hostilities against the Russian Federation. So why doesn't open expansion start anyway? Are our European and American partners stopped by the agreements signed earlier? And why, then, did the same agreements not prevent them from starting shelling Iraq, bombing Syria and Libya? Why exactly do we need a wave of "orangerevolutions" in the territories of the former Soviet republics, and why is it so important for the United States to deploy missile defense bases within their borders?
One of the answers to the questions asked can be the idea of the existence of such an ideal weapon as the system of guaranteed retaliation "Perimeter".
Creation concept
Let's go back for a moment and imagine how our relatives lived during the Cold War. A tightly closed "curtain", the presence of a strong and constantly developing "external enemy", the absence of more or less influential supporters abroad. In such a situation, any well-delivered blow could be the last for our country. And the more the atmosphere heated up, the more information about the American concept of limited nuclear war appeared in the press. According to this doctrine, inflicting a preventive strike on the territory of the USSR assumed the complete destruction of both the main command center of the Union and the key nodes of the Kazbek command system, as well as the disruption of the communication lines of the Strategic Missile Forces.
What could a decapitated and practically destroyed state do in such a situation? Only in the end, slam the door loudly and beautifully, so much so that this "clap" is remembered for a long time. To give the last, already meaningless battle, to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike when there will be no one to control the missiles. It was with such thoughts that the leading Soviet scientists set about developing one of the most terrible modern weapons, forever remaining inmemory as a "weapon of the Last Judgment".
So, what is the Russian Perimeter system? And what is its main feature? The "Perimeter" - "Dead Hand" system is a complex for automatic control of a massive nuclear strike. Its main purpose is to ensure the guaranteed launch of all nuclear missiles in service with the USSR, in the event that a crushing blow is inflicted on the country by the enemy, which will destroy all command links capable of ordering a retaliatory maneuver.
Thus, according to the plan of its creators, the Perimeter nuclear system could prepare and launch missiles even if everyone died, and there would simply be no one to give the order. It is for this idea of a retaliatory strike, which is carried out already beyond the line of death, that the system received its second name in the West - "Dead Hand". In the East, it was called even more precisely - "Hand from the coffin".
Working principle
The developers of the system for protecting the perimeter of the country's borders had two global tasks. First, the system needed to be endowed with some kind of artificial intelligence, so that at the right moment it could independently understand that its time had come. Secondly, it was also necessary to debug the options for shutting down and starting the program in case of unforeseen situations. Simply put, it had to be able to monitor the state of the environment, checking about a hundred different indicators, and also have a kind of "stop tap" that reactsto a direct shutdown order.
After several fruitless attempts, the developers still managed to create a complex that, no matter how incredible it may sound, fully met all their requirements. So what did they do?
As you know, any rocket that exists in this world is capable of taking off into the air only in one case - if there is a clear order. The procedure for transmitting such an order is ridiculously simple. A certain code is transmitted through the command communication lines, which removes all blockages from the system and gives permission to ignite the engines. The rocket rises into the air and rushes to its target. But what to do when there is no way to give an order?
In this case, the responsibility to issue orders was delegated to the Perimeter system. She, having studied the situation and analyzed the internal and external political situation, the absence or presence of communication with the headquarters, as well as the electromagnetic background throughout the country, made a decision and gave the command to start.
At the signal of a smart program, a single missile was launched into the air, which flew not at the intended enemy, but through the main locations of the Soviet nuclear missile complex. It was this rocket, which, like the entire complex as a whole, had the name "Perimeter". And it was she who, with the help of a radio device located on it, gave a signal to the entire military power of the country. As soon as the code was received, all active and mothballed rocket carriers fired a salvo towards the alleged enemy. Soa guaranteed victory turned into an equally crushing defeat.
History of Creation
The Perimeter retaliation system was "conceived" back in August 1974, when the task of developing a special missile system was assigned to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau. Initially, it was planned to use the MP-UR100 model as the base rocket, but later they settled on the MP-UR1000UTTH.
The draft design was completed in December 1975. According to him, a special warhead was installed on the rocket, which included a radio engineering system developed by the LPI Design Bureau. In addition to it, it was also necessary to create a stabilization program so that the rocket had a constant orientation in space throughout its flight.
Flight tests of the finished rocket were carried out under the leadership of the State Commission and with the personal participation of the First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces VV Korobushin. Ten identical missiles were assigned to the experiment, but the very first launches were so successful that it was decided to stop at seven volleys.
At the same time, a special launcher was also created - 15P716. According to the information received, its main components are a command missile and receiving devices that ensure the receipt of orders and codes from command missiles.
According to unverified data, the launcher is a highly protected mine complex of the OS type, but the possibility of placing command missiles inother types of media.
After flight tests, the creators of the complex were tasked with developing additional advanced functions that allow them to give orders to launch missiles not only to ground-based systems, but also to nuclear submarines and aircraft of long-range and naval missile aviation (both standing on airfields and and those on combat duty).
Finally, all work on the "Perimeter" system was completed in March 1982, and in January 1985 the complex was already put on a combat post, where it served until the very end of 1995.
Components included in the "Perimeter" complex
Of course, there is nowhere an exact description of all the components of the system and the order of their interaction with each other. However, even on the basis of the most indirect information, it can be assumed that the state border perimeter protection system is a complex multifunctional complex equipped with many different communication lines and transmitters.
There are several assumptions about the algorithm of the complex. In the first case, it is believed that, being on constant combat duty, "Perimeter" receives data from several tracking systems, including from missile attack early warning radars. After that, the received signals are transmitted to several independent command posts, which are located at a great distance from each other and duplicate their readings (according to unverified data, there are only four such posts).
It is in these points that the most mystical component of the "Perimeter" is based - itsthe main autonomous control and command system. This installation, which has all the features of artificial intelligence, is able, by summing up the data transmitted from different observation posts, to draw a conclusion about the likelihood of a nuclear attack. Here, the principle of working to the limit is simple and is based on checking four basic conditions.
After analyzing all the data received, the system concludes whether a nuclear attack was committed. After that, the presence of communication with the General Staff is checked. If the connection is present, then the system, which is already starting to gain momentum, is turned off again. If no one answers at the headquarters, then the program tries to contact the main anti-missile shield of the country - Kazbek. If they do not answer there either, then the system delegates the right to make a decision to any person currently in the command bunker. If no order follows, then only then the program begins to operate.
Another version of the system operation excludes the possibility of the existence of artificial intelligence. It involves the manual launch of a command rocket. According to this theory, the magic nuclear suitcase is in the hands of the head of state. And upon receipt of information about a massive nuclear strike, the first persons of the country can put the system into combat mode.
After that, if it does not receive new signals for an hour and cannot get in touch with any command center, then the Russian Perimeter system automatically starts the application procedureretaliatory strike. If the headquarters receives a signal about a false alarm, then all the security systems of the "Perimeter" again switch to the tracking mode. (It is estimated that the entire cancellation procedure takes about 15 minutes.)
Location of the "Perimeter"
According to unverified sources, the main weapons of Russia - all the security systems of the "Perimeter" - are located in the Urals, in the region of Mount Kosvinsky Kamen. This mountain range, located near the Konzhakovsky stone in the Northern Urals, reaches a height of 1519 meters and is composed mainly of pyroxenites and duanites. It is precisely because of its, one might say, natural origin that this bunker, according to the American journalist Blair, is the subject of real admiration on the part of American strategists, since from there, through the entire granite thickness, it is possible to maintain communication using a VLF radio signal (propagating even in a nuclear war) with all systems of Russian strategic aviation.
Initially, the site for the construction of the bunker was spent horizontal platinum mines, which in themselves were already a secret object. Duanite, which is the main mineral for making refractory materials, blocks scanning radio emissions and prevents enemy radio signals from pinpointing the exact location of an object.
To ensure uninterrupted supply of the bunker, an additional power line was installed near it, a new bridge was laid and a dirt road was made. The nearby village of Kytlym gradually grows tothe size of a military camp, work is underway to build new houses for soldiers and officers, and other infrastructure is being installed.
Main weapons system
The main elements of the security system ("Perimeter", as the reader has already understood) is an autonomous command IPS, which includes various data transmission and analysis centers and command missile systems.
Among the complexes that are part of the "Perimeter" can be distinguished separately:
- The stationary command and control center of the system, located in the Sverdlovsk region under the Kosvinsky stone mountain.
- Mobile command and control center.
- 1353 Combat control center located in the Sumy region, in the city of Glukhov (from 1990 to 1991) and now transferred to the city of Kartaly.
- 1193 combat control center (located in the Nizhny Novgorod region, in the urban-type settlement Dalnee Konstantinovo-5 since 2005).
- 15P175 "Siren" - a mobile ground complex of command missiles.
- "Perimeter-RTs" - a modernized command missile system with a command missile on the RT-2PM "Topol" (took up combat duty in 1990).
Developers
Of course, the development and creation of a system of this level and scale is not a matter of one decade. And its creation would not have been possible without the competent and efficient work of many talented scientists. Since the "Perimeter" (the "Dead Hand" defense system), like all its components, is still absolutely secret, thenit is not possible to find detailed information about its creators and their future fate.
Among the main developers of the Perimeter system, the name of only one person is specifically known - Vladimir Yarynich, who, after the collapse of the USSR, continued to live and work in the United States, where he told Wired magazine about the existence of the Perimeter system of guaranteed retribution. (By the way, according to Yarynich, the system is manually controlled and activated by order of the head of state.)
Little is known about the other creators of the complex. Thus, many enterprises took part in the design and installation of equipment. The main among them are NPO "Impulse" under the leadership of V. I. Melnikov, Central Design Bureau "Geophysics" under the leadership of G. F. Ignatiev, TsKBTM together with B. R. Aksyutin and many others.
The work on the "Perimeter" was supervised by so many different ministries and departments that it still seems inexplicable that the creation of the complex was kept secret for so long.
Current condition and operation of the complex
Little is known about the true fate of the "Dead Hand". According to the documents, the country's perimeter security system remained in service until June 1995. And then, within the framework of the agreement on general disarmament, she was removed from combat duty. According to other sources, this significant event took place in September 1995, and the perimeter security system was not removed, but only modernized. And the 15A11 rocket was replaced by a new generation command rocket RT-2PM"Poplar".
There is no exact data on the current state of affairs anywhere. However, in 2009, the American magazine Wired again told its readers that Russia's weapon - the Perimeter system - still exists and is still functioning. This information was confirmed in December 2011 by the Commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General S. V. Karakaev, who in his interview again reported that the complex was in a dormant state and was on alert.
It is also known from unconfirmed sources that it was the "Perimeter" (the "Dead Hand" defense system) that is still at the combat post and allowed V. V. Putin to declare that, if desired, Russia is capable of destroying the United States less than thirty minutes. In principle, today is such a time that sometimes, in order to protect the interests of your state, it will not be superfluous to intimidate, so to speak, your opponent.
I want to believe that the 2014 Perimeter system is still in working condition and is in no way inferior to previous models in all its characteristics.
Perimeter media
As mentioned earlier, the main publications about the system appeared in the 90s of the last century in Western and American magazines. It was the Wired newspaper that renamed the Perimeter system to the Dead Hand. Also, a number of publications were published in a number of Japanese periodicals. It was with their light hand that the system of guaranteed retribution became known as the "Hand from the Coffin".
Onterritory of the Russian Federation, as well as all post-Soviet republics, there are extremely few articles about the complex. Only "Rossiyskaya Gazeta" mentioned his work in their reviews. System "Perimeter", "Dead Hand" - these and other names are rarely seen in the press. The main source of information for Russian-speaking users is still data taken from the Internet and translated from foreign languages.
US retaliation
It cannot be said that the USSR was the only country that developed such weapons. So, from February 1961 until June 24, 1990, there was a program in America that was based on the same principle of operation as the Perimeter system. In the USA, this complex was called "Mirror".
It is clear that the main difference between American and Soviet complexes lies precisely in the human factor. The United States relied on the operational actions of its command, while in the USSR they designed weapons for really bad times. (Recall that if a threat is detected, any person who is in the bunker at that time, regardless of his rank and rank, can give the order to deploy the system.)
In the United States, the complex was based on 11 Boeing EC-135C aircraft, which are the main air command posts of the US Army, and 2 aircraft, called the "Looking Eye". The latter were constantly in the air, overseeing the borders of their country, passing overAtlantic and Pacific oceans. The crews of the command posts consisted of 15 people, which certainly had to include at least one general, who, if any external threat was detected, could urgently give an order to the strategic nuclear forces of his country.
After the end of the Cold War, the United States withdrew its sponsorship of the system, and now all VKPs are located at four air bases in the country and are in a state of full combat readiness.
In addition to this system, the United States also had its own command missile complex, located on ten silo launchers. The Mirror was also withdrawn from service in early 1991.
Of course, today we must not forget that, no matter how mysterious this "Perimeter" system may be, it is still a weapon of the past. It was created in the conditions of the Cold War. And today it is unlikely that it meets at least half of the requirements for modern military equipment. However, the mere fact that such a weapon exists, that work on its debugging is still underway, is already a good reason for hope.
