Media: Russia halts development of 'nuclear train' due to the lack of funding
The development of the Barguzin new generation railway strategic missile train (BZhRK) for Russia’s Strategic Missile Troops has been put on hold, as reported by journalists from the Rossiyskaya Gazeta – Russian Weaponry project, with reference to a source in Russia’s military and industrial complex.
“The development work on the Barguzin has been done. The experiment with an ejection launch was carried out successfully,” the Rossiyskaya Gazeta notes. At the beginning of this year, President Vladimir Putin was due to receive a report on the prospects of its deployment. There were expectations that such trains could be received by the army by 2040.
Nevertheless, the decision was made to stop further run-in testing, probably due to a lack of funding. Officially this information has not yet been confirmed or denied.
The article claims that technically speaking, to create a Russian BZhRK superior to what was designed by the USSR is more than realistic, but primarily “a question of money”.
“It would be unreasonable to endeavor to create another expensive nuclear missile system under the current economic conditions. The development work on the Barguzin has been done. The experiment with the ejection launch was carried out successfully. If it is required urgently, our missile train will be on the rails quickly. But for now we will forget about it,” the article comments.
The modern BZhRK was based on Soviet rail-mobile strategic missile systems. However, the “reincarnation of the BZhRK” was only made possible by domestically produced missiles, Russian Weaponry observes.
15Zh61 three-stage inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) were proposed during the Soviet research and development. The primary developer of the ICBMs was Yuzhnoye, which is based in Dnipro, Ukraine. Due to the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, it became impossible to use them. In this connection the decision was made to start using modified Yars ballistic missile systems. At the end of 2016, tests with this model were carried out successfully.