Defensive system perimeter. “Dead hand” or “wild barbarism of the Russians. Well forgotten old

No one will dare to attack Russia: we have a system that guarantees a retaliatory nuclear strike under any circumstances. In America it is called "Dead Hand". About the benefits of fear We habitually do not notice that peace on earth has been hanging by a thread for more than half a century. Our lives too. It started from the very time it was created nuclear weapon and intercontinental missiles. This thread is called “fear”. Fear of receiving a crushing, deadly response. Any champion karateka will tell you: no ushirs and mawashis, jumping and yelling “Kiya!” they won’t save you from a furious man with an axe. Especially if the guy is wearing a padded jacket naked body and worn-out kirzachs. Today, such a thread - a deterrent to the third world war - is the presence in Russia of a system that allows a retaliatory nuclear strike even with the complete destruction of command posts and communication lines of strategic nuclear forces. In our country this system is called “Perimeter”, and in the USA it is nicknamed Dead hand. Suitcase behind your back“Perimeter” is not a “nuclear suitcase” that officers carry behind our president naval uniform. By the way, the same goes for the American ones. And they started doing this much earlier than we did. For them, this began under President Dwight Eisenhower, who knew his reckless generals well. But it ended after the Cuban missile crisis, when the thread became thinner than a hair. Then President John Kennedy doubted the control of the nuclear arsenal personally to him, Supreme Commander United States of America. The “suitcase” has a weak point: only the living can use it. And we also need communication lines. Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev had no doubts about his marshals and generals. But he couldn’t watch indifferently as a potential enemy was constantly looking for ways to block control and communication means. What if the adversary strikes first and that’s it? command posts- into dust? And my colleagues are far from young... If you tell a member of the Politburo on duty (and they organized such duty as those “responsible for the Motherland”) that there are seven minutes left before the first American nuclear missiles fall, what could happen to him other than a heart attack? But it was not good to concentrate everything on oneself: he, Secretary General Central Committee of the CPSU and Chairman of the Presidium Supreme Council The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, with all its limitless power, is in the end also just a person, although personal control must be maintained. It was decided to go two ways. People, ah! At the end of the first path, by 1984, a “nuclear suitcase” with a control and communication system appeared. On the second path, difficulties immediately emerged. After all, it was necessary to create a system that would be guaranteed to convey combat orders to command posts and launchers strategic missiles without communication channels, making decisions automatically! How can you trust soulless iron with decisions about life and death on planet Earth? But the designers found a solution. True, we had to create a system similar to artificial intelligence. In normal situations, Perimeter sleeps, waiting for a command or alarm signal from the missile attack warning system (MAWS). Having received a command or signal to launch missiles from the territory of other countries, this system goes into combat mode. The automation starts monitoring a network of sensors to detect signs of nuclear explosions. Zhelezyaka must establish absolutely unequivocally: was there an attack using nuclear weapons? If he doesn’t install it, he’ll doze off again. Thread thickness Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy, developed a criterion for guaranteed destruction of the United States - “unacceptable damage” - assessed as the country losing half of its population and two-thirds of its economy. McNamara believed that for this, the USSR would only need to deliver 100 megaton-class nuclear warheads to the United States. In subsequent years, the criterion was repeatedly refined. Estimates of recent years, made after the terrorist attack in 1967 that destroyed the twin towers in New York, are 150 - 200 nuclear warheads. But they still need to be delivered there. Is this possible given the deployment of the US missile defense system? Here's what on December 16, 2011 in an interview “ Komsomolskaya Pravda“Said the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Sergei Karakaev: “We are planning two American anti-missile missiles for one of our warheads. If 40 interceptor missiles are deployed in Poland, then theoretically, in an ideal situation, they will be able to intercept up to 20 warheads. And only if the Americans can modernize them in such a way that their flight speed will be comparable to the speed of our missiles. But we have, say, 170 blocks flying from just one division.” So the “response” is guaranteed. An atomic explosion is accompanied by a shock wave, light, electromagnetic and ionizing radiation, which are detected by appropriate sensors from a considerable distance. Having detected, for example, multiple sources of radiation simultaneously with seismic disturbances in the same coordinates, the Perimeter system comes to the conclusion about a massive nuclear strike. But she still doesn’t know if those in command are alive? What if the command “Hang up!” will follow? Therefore, Perimeter first checks communication with the General Staff. If there is a connection, it turns off. If the General Staff does not respond to persistent requests, “Perimeter” requests a system where the top is the “nuclear suitcase”. If they are silent there too, the artificial intelligence transfers the right to make decisions to any person in its command bunker. Is he also silent? Well, then there are no options... Whoever didn’t hide, it’s not my fault! To everyone who can hear me: take off! Command missiles are launched from the positions. But they are not flying towards the enemy, but over Russia. Instead of warheads, the missiles carry radio transmitters. They send out the command “Start!” all available combat missiles - in underground silos, under the wings of strategic bombers, on submarines and mobile ground systems. The command bypasses all blocking. No keys and red buttons turned at the same time, like in the movies. The system is fully automated; the human factor is excluded in its operation. This algorithm makes it possible to guarantee a retaliatory strike even if the command and launch crews are completely destroyed. Even its creators did not know how to disable the Perimeter. How else can we ensure a 100% “response”?! "Doomsday Machine" None of the uninitiated would have known about the existence of “Perimeter” in our country if one of its developers had not fled to the USA, where he exchanged information about the system for an American passport. In October 1993, the influential newspaper The New York Times burst out with a panicked article entitled “Russia has a Doomsday Machine.” US newspapermen called the system immoral. "Perimeter" was on combat duty until June 1995. And then, within the framework of the START-1 agreement, it was withdrawn from it. Our overseas friends applauded: they are also champions of universal human values ​​and morals... But on December 16, 2011, in an interview with Komsomolskaya Pravda, the commander of the Rocket Forces strategic purpose Sergey Karakaev said: “Yes, the Perimeter system exists today. She's on combat duty. And when the need arises for a retaliatory strike, when it is not possible to reach some part of the launchers with a signal, this command can come from these missiles from the Perimeter. Scary? But not only and not so much for us. So the thread is intact... Parity? According to the 2010 START-3 Treaty, the United States and Russia are obliged to reduce the number of nuclear weapons (nuclear weapons) to 1500 - 1675, and their carriers (intercontinental ballistic missiles, ballistic missiles on submarines and heavy bombers) to 500 - 1100 units. In practice in 2013, this was the following: The United States has 792 carriers of nuclear warheads, 1654, Russia has 492 carriers and 1480 nuclear warheads. Russia and the USA have relative nuclear parity. However, in Lately a number of experts say that the US-created missile defense(missile defense) is capable of neutralizing the Russian nuclear missile potential. At the same time, other experts argue that the American missile defense system is not capable of seriously threatening Russia’s strategic nuclear forces. Author: Mikhail Timoshenko

Russia has the only weapon in the world that guarantees a retaliatory nuclear strike against the enemy, even in the terrible event that we no longer have anyone to decide on this strike. The unique system counterattacks automatically - and brutally.

Imagine the worst possible scenario. The world, teetering on the very brink of war, collapsed. The patience of the “Western democracies” has been exhausted, and across the territory Soviet Union a pre-emptive nuclear strike was launched. Deadly missiles were launched from silo launchers, submarines and aircraft. The full power of many thousands of warheads fell on cities and military installations. And while the Soviet leadership, in shock and panic, was figuring out what had happened, whether it was a mistake, and how to correct the situation, there was nothing left to correct. Major cities, industrial and military centers, control and communications centers were destroyed in a single massive strike. The powerful nuclear arsenal of the USSR simply did not have time to be used: the command did not come, and in the absence of a leadership center, the dangerous rival is blind, mute and motionless.

But at the very moment when NATO generals raise their glasses of victory, something unimaginable happens. The enemy, who had been silent for what seemed like forever, seemed to come to life. Thousands of missiles rushed towards Western countries - and before the generals had time to finish off the bottle of champagne, many of them, having broken through the missile defense built with such efforts, wiped out large cities, military bases, and command centers from the face of the earth. Nobody won.

This is how the Perimeter system worked, receiving Western press chilling the name “Dead Hand”, the last argument of the Soviet (and now Russian) state. Despite the large number and variety of “Doomsday Machines” invented by science fiction writers, which guarantee retribution to any enemy and are capable of reaching and guaranteed to destroy him, only “Perimeter” apparently really exists.

However, “Perimeter” is a system kept in such strict secrecy that there are some doubts about its existence, and all information about its composition and functions should be taken with a great deal of doubt. So what do we know?

The Perimeter system launches an automatic massive nuclear strike. It guarantees the launch of submarine-, air- and silo-based ballistic missiles in the event that the enemy destroys ALL points capable of ordering a retaliatory attack. It is completely independent from other means of communication and command systems, even from the notorious “ nuclear briefcase» Kazbek system.

The system was put on combat duty in 1985, and five years later it was modernized, received the name “Perimeter-RC” and served for another 5 years. Then, as part of the START-1 agreement, she was removed from duty - and her current condition is unknown. According to some sources, it may be “turned on” again after START-1 expires (this happened already in December 2009), and according to others, it has already been returned to its current state.

This is how the system is believed to work. “Perimeter” is on constant combat duty; it receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars for missile attacks. Apparently, the system has its own independent command posts, which are in no way (outwardly) indistinguishable from many similar points of the Strategic Missile Forces. According to some reports, there are 4 such points, they are separated over a long distance and duplicate each other’s functions.

At these points, the most important - and most secret - component of the Perimeter, the autonomous control and command system, operates. It is believed that this is a complex software system created on the basis of artificial intelligence. By receiving data on communications on the air, the radiation field and other radiation at control points, information from early detection systems for launches, seismic activity, it is able to draw conclusions about the fact of a massive nuclear attack.

If “the situation is ripe,” the system itself is transferred to a state of full combat readiness. Now she needs one last factor: the absence of regular signals from the usual command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces. If signals have not been received for some time, “Perimeter” triggers the Apocalypse.

15A11 command missiles are released from the silos. Based on intercontinental missiles MR UR-100 (launch weight 71 tons, flight range up to 11 thousand km, two stages, liquid-propellant jet engine), they carry a special warhead. In itself, it is harmless: it is a radio engineering system developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. These missiles, rising high into the atmosphere and flying over the territory of the country, broadcast launch codes for all nuclear missile weapons.

They also act automatically. Imagine a submarine standing at the pier: almost the entire crew on the shore has already died, and only a few confused submariners on board. Suddenly she comes to life. Without any outside intervention, having received a launch signal from strictly secret receiving devices, the nuclear arsenal begins to move. The same thing happens in immobilized silo installations and in strategic aviation. A retaliatory strike is inevitable: it is probably unnecessary to add that the Perimeter is designed to be especially resistant to all damaging factors of nuclear weapons. It is almost impossible to reliably disable it.

Russia has updated its "doomsday" system

On November 15, the Russian Aerospace Defense Forces (ASD) successfully launched into orbit the Meridian communications satellite, which will support the normal functioning of the Unified Satellite Communication System (ESSC) of the Armed Forces. This connection is a backup channel of the so-called “Doomsday” system. The Ministry of Defense explained to Izvestia what is remarkable about the current launch from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in the Astrakhan region.

- “Judgment Day” is for the public, but for specialists it is another name, classified. This is a network of communication nodes, transmitting stations and computer terminals that provide stable, noise-free and closed communication with any point globe. They are the ones who give the signal for the combat use of all strategic nuclear forces,” the interlocutor said.

According to him, the system remains Russia’s best-kept secret, and the Ministry of Defense is responsible for its operation special department. The source refused to say on what principles the signal is sent to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), strategic bombers and submarines with nuclear missiles, which make up the nuclear triad.

"Doomsday" is part of the main task of the global system. In general, it provides closed communication throughout the Earth in a normal, non-emergency mode. Its creation began back in the 1970s. An officer of the Aerospace Defense Command shared with Izvestia that the ESSS consists of two subsystems - in geostationary and highly elliptical orbits. On the first, the satellite seems to hover over a certain area, combining its own speed and the speed of rotation of the Earth; on the second, it moves along a parabola with the highest point in the Northern Hemisphere.

We simply call the geostationary orbit stationary, and the highly elliptical orbit – mobile,” explained the interlocutor in the East Kazakhstan region.

According to his information, the stationary subsystem consists of about a dozen Raduga satellites. All of them hang over the territory of Russia, but without mobile add-ons they cannot fully fulfill the tasks of the ESSS. The fact is that at high latitudes it is more difficult to “hang” a geostationary satellite than at the equator, and above North Pole where the Earth's rotation axis passes, it is generally impossible to hold them. This is where mobile satellites are needed, those same “Meridians”.

The problem is that such a satellite does not hang, but moves, and its operating time is limited. For support continuous communication The satellites must follow each other with an interval of six to seven hours, and their ecliptic plane is rotated 90 degrees to each other, says an aerospace defense officer.

Before Meridians, the mobile subsystem consisted of satellites of the Molniya series. In 1998, funding for the ESSC was sharply reduced, and a smooth replacement of the old series with a new one did not work out. The Meridians themselves are not ideal either. Of the five previously launched satellites, two are now operational - one was depressurized, the second did not enter orbit, and the third died at the end of last year along with the launch vehicle.

As an interlocutor in East Kazakhstan region said, the Molnii had a service life of three years, but they work longer.

With Meridians in orbit, communication has become much better. The satellite just launched will be the third, and when it becomes part of the ESSS, our mobile subsystem will work in full force, - he said.

The optimism of East Kazakhstan region is added by the fact that the launched Meridian entered its intended orbit on November 14 at 21.05, and at 5 am on November 15 carried out the first test data exchange. The military hopes it will take no more than a week to correct the orbit and conduct all tests. izvestia.ru/news/539706

The most the best remedy would be the resuscitation of the Perimeter system

There is currently intense discussion in the media military reform. In particular, many journalists demand the names of all potential opponents.

I hasten to reassure everyone, at present great war not guaranteed to happen. The blue dream of pacifists - “the 21st century without wars” has come true. Since 2000, not a single country in the world has been in a state of war for a single day, although not a single day has passed without combat operations taking place in one or more parts of the globe.

FRENCH OPTION FOR RUSSIA

Now the war is called “the fight against terrorism”, “peacekeeping”, “peace enforcement”, etc. Therefore, I propose to change the terminology and talk not about war or defense of the fatherland, but about the reaction of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation to threats to national security. The illusions of some liberals, who believed that the source of the Cold War was communism and that after its disappearance peace and general prosperity would come, turned out to be a delusion.

Moreover, if before 1991 the UN Security Council and International law conflicts were contained to a certain extent, but now their effect is negligible. As for the notorious world public opinion, then during the August 2008 conflict everything fell into place. The entire world community supported the aggressor, not his victim. Western TV channels showed the burning streets of Tskhinvali, passing it off as Georgian cities.

It's time to remember the covenant Alexandra III Peacemaker: “Russia has only two allies - its army and navy.” Does this mean that Russia, in a crisis, should get involved in a symmetrical arms race like the USSR? Until 1991, the USSR traded mainly at a loss, selling it cheaply to “friends,” or even simply giving it away as a gift.

It’s curious why our politicians and military don’t want to remember the French phenomenon of 1946–1991? France was devastated by World War II, then took part in two dozen large and small colonial wars in Laos, Vietnam, the 1956 Suez Canal War, and the Algerian War (1954–1962). Nevertheless, the French managed, independently of other countries, to create a full range of weapons from ATGMs to intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), almost not inferior to the superpowers. All French ships, including nuclear-powered ICBM submarines and aircraft carriers, were built in French shipyards and carry French weapons. And our Ministry of Defense now wants to buy French warships.

But the French people, in order to create the third largest military-industrial complex in the world, did not tighten their belts at all. The country has developed intensively market economy, the standard of living rose steadily.

The casket opens simply. Between 1950 and 1990, approximately 60% of the weapons produced by France were exported. Moreover, exports were carried out in all directions. Thus, in the wars of 1956, 1967 and 1973, the armies of Israel and all Arab countries were armed to the teeth with French weapons. Iran and Iraq also fought each other with French weapons. England is France's NATO ally, but Falklands War It was French-made aircraft and missiles that caused the greatest damage to the British fleet.

I fully admit that a refined intellectual will be indignant: “The French arms trade is immoral in all directions!” But, alas, if these weapons systems had not been sold by France, others would have been guaranteed to sell them.

A rhetorical question arises: can our nuclear submarines, sold to Iran, Venezuela, India, Chile, Argentina, etc., even hypothetically, cause damage to Russia at least in the distant future? Yes what nuclear boats? Let's take purely defensive weapons - anti-aircraft missiles. Why can’t the S-300 anti-aircraft system be sold to Venezuela, Iran, Syria and other countries?

AMERICAN MISSILE CHALLENGE

Unfortunately, our politicians and the media pay very little attention to the American ship-based missile defense system created during the modernization of the Aegis anti-aircraft complex. The new missile was called “Standard-3” (SM-3) and after certain modifications (which ones are kept secret by the Pentagon) it can be equipped with any of the 84 US Navy ships that have the Aegis system. We are talking about 27 Ticonderoga-class cruisers and 57 Airlie Burke-class destroyers.

In 2006, the cruiser CG-67 Shiloh hit a missile warhead with an SM-3 missile at an altitude of 200 km, 250 km northwest of Kauan Island (Hawaii archipelago). It is interesting that, according to Western media reports, the warhead was targeted from the Japanese destroyer DDG-174 Kirishima (total displacement 9490 tons; equipped with the Aegis system).

The fact is that since 2005, Japan, with the help of the United States, has been equipping its fleet with SM-3 anti-missiles of the Aegis system.

The first Japanese ship equipped with the Aegis system with SM-3 was the destroyer DDG-177 Atado. He received anti-missiles at the very end of 2007.

On November 6, 2006, SM-3 missiles launched from the DDG-70 Lake Erie destroyer intercepted two ICBM warheads at an altitude of about 180 km.

And on March 21, 2008, an SM-3 missile from the same Lake Erie struck at an altitude of 247 km and shot down the American secret L-21 Radarsat satellite with a direct hit. The official designation of this secret spacecraft is USA-193.

So on Far East American and Japanese destroyers and cruisers can shoot down ballistic missiles of Russian submarines in the initial part of the trajectory, even if they are launched from their own territorial waters.

I note that American ships with the Aegis system regularly visit the Black, Baltic and Barents Seas. The naval missile defense system is dangerous for the Russian Federation not only during the war. The US military deliberately exaggerates its capabilities, deceiving incompetent people in the US and Europe, from presidents and ministers to shopkeepers.

The possibility of a nuclear retaliatory strike from the Soviet Union scared everyone, and since 1945 there has been no direct military confrontation between the West and Russia. Now, for the first time in 60 years, politicians and ordinary people in NATO countries have created the illusion of their own impunity. Meanwhile, our media does not think of spoiling this euphoria by recalling American nuclear weapons tests at altitudes from 80 to 400 km in the summer of 1962 on Johnson Atoll. Then, after each explosion, radio communication throughout the entire water area was interrupted for several hours. Pacific Ocean.

In 2001, the Pentagon's Defense Threat Reduce Agency (DTRA) attempted to assess possible consequences tests for low-orbit satellites. The results were disappointing: one small nuclear charge(from 10 to 20 kilotons - like the bomb dropped on Hiroshima), detonated at an altitude of 125 to 300 km, “is enough to put out of action for several weeks or even months all satellites that do not have special protection from radiation." University of Maryland plasma physicist Denis Papadopoulos had a different opinion: “A 10-kiloton nuclear bomb detonated at a specially calculated altitude could lead to the loss of 90% of all low-orbit satellites for about a month.” It is estimated that the cost of replacing equipment damaged by the consequences of high-altitude nuclear explosion, will amount to more than 100 billion dollars. This does not count the general economic losses from the loss of opportunities provided by space technology!

Why not ask American missile defense experts to explain how the Aegis and other missile defense systems will work after the explosion of two dozen hydrogen charges in low orbits? Well, then let Western taxpayers think for themselves what the Pentagon is spending money on in times of crisis.

BROUGHT "TOMAHAWKS"

Another weapon that has created instability in the world and generated a sense of impunity among military and politicians are American Tomahawk-type cruise missiles with a firing range of 2200–2500 km. Already, surface ships, submarines and aircraft of the United States and NATO countries can fire thousands of such missiles at the Russian Federation. "Tomahawks" can hit ICBM silos, mobile complexes ICBMs, communications centers, command posts. Western media claim that a surprise strike by non-nuclear cruise missiles could completely deprive Russia of the ability to launch a nuclear strike.

In this regard, it is surprising that the issue of Tomahawk missiles is not included by our diplomats in the framework of the START negotiations.

By the way, it would be nice to remind our admirals and designers of the Novator design bureau that our analogs to the Tomahawks - various "Grenades" and others - are not suitable for holding a candle to American cruise missiles. And it’s not me who says this, but Aunt Geography.

The American Air Force and Navy will never allow our ships within 2,500 km of the shores of America. Therefore, the Russian response to the American Tomahawks can only be ship missiles“Meteorite” and “Bolide” or their more effective analogues with a firing range of 5–8 thousand km.

WELL FORGOTTEN OLD

The best way to rid the West of illusions about the possibility of delivering an unpunished strike on Russia would be to revive the Perimeter system.

The system so frightened the West in the early 1990s that it was called the “Dead Hand.” Let me briefly remind you of this horror story.

In the 1970s, the United States began developing the doctrine of “Limited Nuclear War.” In accordance with it, key nodes of the Kazbek command system and communication lines of the Strategic Missile Forces will be destroyed by the first strike, and surviving communication lines will be suppressed by electronic interference. In this way, the US leadership hoped to avoid a retaliatory nuclear strike.

In response, the USSR decided, in addition to the existing RSVN communication channels, to create a special command missile, equipped with a powerful radio transmitting device, launched at a special period and giving commands to launch all intercontinental missiles on combat duty throughout the USSR. Moreover, this rocket was only main part big system.

To ensure the guaranteed fulfillment of its role, the system was initially designed as fully automatic and, in the event of a massive attack, is capable of making a decision on a retaliatory strike independently, without the participation (or with minimal participation) of a person. The system included numerous instruments for measuring radiation, seismic vibrations, and was associated with radar stations long-range detection, missile attack early warning satellites, etc. The existence of such a system in the West is called immoral, but it is, in fact, the only deterrent that provides real guarantees that a potential enemy will renounce the concept of a preventive crushing strike.

ASYMMETRICAL “PERIMETER”

The principle of operation of the Perimeter system is as follows. In peacetime, the main components of the system are in standby mode, monitoring the situation and processing data received from measuring posts. In the event of a threat of a large-scale attack using nuclear weapons, confirmed by data from early warning systems about a missile attack, the Perimeter complex is automatically brought into combat readiness and begins to monitor the operational situation.

If the sensor components of the system confirm with sufficient reliability the fact of a massive nuclear strike, and the system itself loses contact with the main command nodes of the Strategic Missile Forces for a certain time, it initiates the launch of several command missiles, which, flying over their territory, broadcast control signals using powerful radio transmitters installed on board signal and launch codes for all components of the nuclear triad - silo and mobile launch complexes, nuclear missile submarines and strategic aviation. The receiving equipment of both the Strategic Missile Forces command posts and individual launchers, having received this signal, begins the process of immediately launching ballistic missiles in a fully automatic mode, providing a guaranteed retaliatory strike against the enemy even in the event of the loss of everything personnel.

Development of a special command missile system“Perimeter” was set by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau by a joint resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU No. 695-227 of August 30, 1974. It was initially planned to use the MR-UR100 (15A15) missile as the base missile; later they settled on the MR-UR100 UTTH (15A16) missile. The missile, modified in terms of its control system, received the index 15A11.

In December 1975, a preliminary design of the command rocket was completed. The rocket was equipped with a special warhead with the index 15B99, which included an original radio engineering system developed by OKB LPI (Leningrad Polytechnic Institute). To ensure the conditions for its functioning, the warhead had to have a constant orientation in space during flight. A special system for its calming, orientation and stabilization was developed using cold compressed gas (taking into account the experience of developing a propulsion system for the special Mayak warhead), which significantly reduced the cost and time of its creation and testing. The production of a special warhead 15B99 was organized at NPO Strela in Orenburg.

After ground testing of new technical solutions in 1979, flight testing of the command rocket began. At NIIP-5, sites 176 and 181, two experimental silo launchers were put into operation. In addition, a special command post was created at site 71, equipped with newly developed unique combat control equipment to provide remote control and launch of a command missile according to orders coming from the highest echelons of the Strategic Missile Forces control. At a special technical position in the assembly building, a shielded anechoic chamber was built, equipped with equipment for autonomous testing of the radio transmitter.

Flight tests of the 15A11 missile were carried out under the leadership of the State Commission, headed by the First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General Varfolomey Korobushin.

The first launch of the 15A11 command rocket with an equivalent transmitter was successful on December 26, 1979. The interaction of all systems involved in the launch was checked; the rocket launched the 15B99 warhead onto a standard trajectory with a top of about 4000 km and a range of 4500 km. A total of 10 missiles were manufactured for flight testing. However, from 1979 to 1986, only seven launches were carried out.

During testing of the system, real launches of ICBMs were carried out different types from combat facilities according to orders transmitted by the 15A11 command missile during the flight. To do this, additional antennas were mounted on the launchers of these missiles and receiving devices of the Perimeter system were installed. Later, all launchers and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces underwent similar modifications. In total, during flight development tests (FDT), six launches were considered successful, and one was considered partially successful. Due to the successful progress of the tests and the fulfillment of the assigned tasks, the State Commission considered it possible to be satisfied with seven launches instead of the planned ten.

A CURE FOR POSSIBLE ILLUSIONS

Simultaneously with the LCT of the rocket, ground tests of the functioning of the entire complex were carried out under the influence of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion. Tests were carried out at the test site of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, in the laboratories of VNIIEF (Arzamas-16), as well as at the nuclear test site New Earth. The tests carried out confirmed the operability of the equipment at levels of exposure to the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion exceeding those specified by the specifications of the USSR Ministry of Defense.

In addition, during the tests, by resolution of the USSR Council of Ministers, the task was set to expand the functions of the complex with the delivery of combat orders not only to intercontinental missile launchers ground-based, but also to nuclear missile submarines, long-range and naval missile-carrying aircraft at airfields and in the air, as well as control centers of the Strategic Missile Forces, Air Force and Navy. Flight testing of the command missile was completed in March 1982, and in January 1985 the Perimeter complex was put on combat duty.

Data on the Perimeter system is extremely classified. However, it can be assumed that technical operation rockets is identical to the operation of the basic 15A16 rocket. The launcher is silo-type, automated, highly protected, most likely an OS type - a modernized OS-84 launcher.

There is no reliable information about the system, however, based on indirect evidence, it can be assumed that it is a complex expert system equipped with a variety of communication systems and sensors that monitor the combat situation. The system monitors the presence and intensity of conversations on air at military frequencies, the receipt of telemetry signals from Strategic Missile Forces posts, the level of radiation on the surface and in the surrounding area, the regular occurrence of point sources of powerful ionizing and electromagnetic radiation at key coordinates, coinciding with sources of short-term seismic disturbances in the earth’s crust (which corresponds to the picture of multiple ground-based nuclear strikes), and the presence of living people at the command post. Based on the correlation of these factors, the system probably makes the final decision on the need for a retaliatory strike. After being put on combat duty, the complex worked and was periodically used during command post exercises.

In December 1990, a modernized system was put into service, called “Perimeter-RC”, which operated until June 1995, when, as part of the START-1 agreement, the complex was removed from combat duty.

It is quite possible that the Perimeter complex should be modernized so that it can quickly respond to an attack by non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles.

I am sure that our scientists can come up with dozens of asymmetric answers to military threat USA, and much cheaper. Well, as for their immorality, if some British ladies think anti-personnel mines immoral weapons, and the Tomahawks are very respectable, then it’s not a bad idea to give them a good scare. And the more the ladies shout, the less desire our Western friends will have to get into trouble with Russia.

The American magazine “Wired” writes in fear (original in English) : Russia has the only weapon in the world that guarantees a retaliatory nuclear strike against the enemy, even in the terrible event that we no longer have anyone to decide on this strike. The unique system counterattacks automatically – and brutally.

Imagine the worst possible scenario. The world, teetering on the very brink of war, collapsed. The patience of the “Western democracies” was exhausted, and a pre-emptive nuclear strike was launched on the territory of the Soviet Union. Deadly missiles were launched from silo launchers, submarines and aircraft. The full power of many thousands of warheads fell on cities and military installations. And while the Soviet leadership, in shock and panic, was figuring out what had happened, whether it was a mistake, and how to correct the situation, there was nothing left to correct.

Major cities, industrial and military centers, control and communications centers were destroyed in a single massive strike. The powerful nuclear arsenal of the USSR simply did not have time to be used: the command did not come, and in the absence of a leadership center, the dangerous rival is blind, mute and motionless. But at the very moment when NATO generals raise their glasses of victory, something unimaginable happens. The enemy, who had been silent for what seemed like forever, seemed to come to life. Thousands of missiles rushed towards Western countries - and before the generals had time to finish off the bottle of champagne, many of them, having broken through the missile defense built with such efforts, wiped out large cities, military bases, and command centers from the face of the earth. Nobody won.

This is how the “Perimeter” system worked, which received the chilling name “Dead Hand” in the Western press, the last argument of the Soviet (and now Russian) state. Despite the large number and variety of “Doomsday Machines” invented by science fiction writers, which guarantee retribution to any enemy and are capable of reaching and guaranteed to destroy him, only “Perimeter” apparently really exists. However, “Perimeter” is a system kept in such strict secrecy that there are some doubts about its existence, and all information about its composition and functions should be taken with a great deal of doubt. So what do we know?

The Perimeter system launches an automatic massive nuclear strike. It guarantees the launch of submarine-, air- and silo-based ballistic missiles in the event that the enemy destroys ALL points capable of ordering a retaliatory attack. It is completely independent from other means of communication and command systems, even from the notorious “nuclear suitcase” of the Kazbek system.

The system was put on combat duty in 1985, and five years later it was modernized, received the name “Perimeter-RC” and served for another 5 years. Then, as part of the START-1 agreement, she was removed from duty - and her current condition is unknown. According to some sources, it may be “turned on” again after START I expires, and according to others, it has already been returned to its current state.

This is how the system is believed to work. “Perimeter” is on constant combat duty and receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars for missile attacks. Apparently, the system has its own independent command posts, which are in no way (outwardly) indistinguishable from many similar points of the Strategic Missile Forces. According to some reports, there are 4 such points, they are separated over a long distance and duplicate each other’s functions.

At these points, the most important - and most secret - component of the Perimeter, the autonomous control and command system, operates. It is believed that this is a complex software system created on the basis of artificial intelligence. By receiving data on communications on the air, the radiation field and other radiation at control points, information from early detection systems for launches, seismic activity, it is able to draw conclusions about the fact of a massive nuclear attack.

If “the situation is ripe,” the system itself is transferred to a state of full combat readiness. Now she needs one last factor: the absence of regular signals from the usual command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces. If signals have not been received for some time, “Perimeter” triggers the Apocalypse. 15A11 command missiles are released from the silos. Created on the basis of the MR UR-100 intercontinental missiles (launch weight 71 tons, flight range up to 11 thousand km, two stages, liquid-propellant jet engine), they carry a special warhead. In itself, it is harmless: it is a radio engineering system developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. These missiles, rising high into the atmosphere and flying over the territory of the country, broadcast launch codes for all nuclear missile weapons.

They also act automatically. Imagine a submarine standing at the pier: almost the entire crew on the shore has already died, and only a few confused submariners on board. Suddenly she comes to life. Without any outside intervention, having received a launch signal from strictly secret receiving devices, the nuclear arsenal begins to move. The same thing happens in immobilized silo installations and in strategic aviation. A retaliatory strike is inevitable: it is probably unnecessary to add that the Perimeter is designed to be especially resistant to all damaging factors of nuclear weapons. It is almost impossible to reliably disable it.

Imagine a fully automated destruction system on a global scale. Such as "Skynet" from the Terminator films or even the absurd "Doomsday Machine" that Doctor Strangelove boasted about. What is this: " Secret materials"Soviet style? Or is there a possibility that this system actually exists?

« The USSR developed a system that became known as the “Dead Hand”. What did this mean? If the country was attacked nuclear attack, and the Commander-in-Chief could not make any decision, among the intercontinental missiles that were at the disposal of the USSR, there were those that could be launched via a radio signal from the system commanding the battle“says Doctor of Engineering Sciences Petr Belov.

Using a complex system of sensors that measured seismic activity, air pressure, and radiation to determine whether the USSR was being attacked by a nuclear weapon, the Dead Hand provided the ability to launch a nuclear arsenal without anyone pressing the red button. If contact with the Kremlin were lost and the computers detected an attack, the launch codes would be activated, giving the USSR the opportunity to retaliate after its destruction.

« A system that can be automatically activated upon the first enemy strike is actually necessary. Its very presence makes it clear to the enemies that even if ours are destroyed command centers and decision-making systems, we will have the ability to launch an automated retaliatory strike“, said the former head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Leonid Ivashov.

During Cold War The USA had its own “backup option”, code-named “Mirror”. Crews have been in the air continuously for three decades, with the mission to control the skies should control of the ground be lost due to a surprise attack. The main difference between the Dead Hand and the Mirror is that the Americans relied on people to warn them about the attack. After the Cold War, the United States abandoned this system, although it is still unclear whether a Soviet version exists. Those who know about this avoid talking about this topic. " I can't talk about this because I don't know about the current state of affairs", says Ivashov.

DOSSIER.

The Perimeter system with its Dead Hand component was put into service in 1983. This was no secret for the United States, and they always monitored missile test launches with special attention. Therefore, when on November 13, 1984, the 15A11 command missile, created in Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, was tested, all American intelligence assets worked in a very intense mode. The command rocket was the intermediate option mentioned above. It was planned to be used in the event that communication between the command and missile units scattered throughout the country was completely interrupted. It was then that the order was supposed to be given from the General Staff in the Moscow region or from the reserve command post in Leningrad to launch 15A11. The missile was supposed to launch from the Kapustin Yar test site or from a mobile launcher, fly over those areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan where the missile units were stationed, and give them the command to take off.

On a November day in 1984, this is exactly what happened: the command rocket issued a command to prepare and launch from Baikonur the R-36M (15A14) - which later became the legendary “Satan”. Well, then everything happened as usual: “Satan” took off, rose into space, and a training warhead separated from it, which hit a training target at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka. (Detailed technical characteristics of the command rocket, if this issue is of particular interest to anyone, can be found in books that last years are published in abundance in Russian and English.)

However, then, twenty years ago, the Americans did not know everything about the Strategic Missile Forces control system. Details about “Perimeter” and “Dead Hand” became known to them only in the early 1990s, when some of the developers of this system moved to the West. On October 8, 1993, the New York Times published an article by its columnist Bruce Blair, “The Russian Doomsday Machine,” in which information about the control system of the Soviet (then Russian) missile forces appeared for the first time in the open press. For the first time, its name was also announced - “Perimeter”, once top-secret, but now known to everyone who needs it and who doesn’t need it. At the same time, the concept of dead hand entered the English language - “dead hand” in relation to rocketry.

Based on materials from open sources

People, out of habit, do not pay attention to the fact that peace on the planet has been on the brink of an abyss over the past decades, and with it not only the lives of billions of people, but also the integrity of planet Earth itself. And this global danger of a catastrophe on a planetary scale arose from the moment of the creation of nuclear weapons and their means of delivery - intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The history of recent decades has known moments when the threat of igniting a nuclear war, and after it a nuclear winter, has dozens, if not hundreds of cases. The most ingenious plans for nuclear strikes were being developed, as a result of which the existence of the Soviet Union would have long been history, but not in the form it is now, but in a different, apocalyptic form.

However, in the very last moments, it was as if some unknown force stopped the American officer’s finger from pressing the red button. Maybe it really existed, or maybe this restraining force still exists today? As it turned out relatively recently from semi-official and, for obvious reasons, unverified sources, such a deterrent force really exists.

Today, such a deterrent force against even thoughts of inciting a third world war is a certain strictly classified system that Russia inherited from the USSR. It will make it possible to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike, even if command posts and communication lines in the strategic nuclear forces are completely destroyed. We call this system “Perimeter”, and Western military analysts called it “Dead hand”, which translates from English as “Dead hand”.

How a system called “Perimeter” could have worked in the Soviet era

The apocalyptic scenario could develop according to the following scenario. In a balanced world, the military-political situation would sharply worsen, for example, because of some small country, for example, the Middle East region. The long patience of “Western democracy”, instigated by the military-political leadership of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance, would come to an end.

Not seeing for himself any alternative to the current situation, and considering himself completely safe, the president of one of the leading states in this bloc would have made a decision and given the order to launch a nuclear strike on the Soviet Union, justifying it as a preemption. From a great many mines, from several continents, the deadliest missiles on the planet would be launched without warning, but this is not the whole picture of a massive nuclear strike. In addition to the ground attack, launchers on nuclear submarines plying the world's oceans would be activated, and strategic bombers and other aircraft carrying nuclear weapons would attack the territory of the USSR from the air.

By major cities, nuclear power plants, strategic and military-industrial complexes, military facilities, as well as launch silos with strategic ballistic missiles would be struck with rapid, powerful nuclear missile strike. Missiles and bombs, filled with many thousands of warheads, would fly into the unsuspecting, peacefully resting Soviet population, destroying everything around with hitherto unprecedented power.

For some more time, the Soviet party leadership, which was in a state of shock and panic, but had managed to move to special underground bunker-type shelters, would have clarified the general situation. In a half-asleep state, military-political leaders would try to contact at least someone and find out: has a tragic mistake happened, and is there a prospect for correcting the current situation? However, nothing could have been done to correct what happened, and the government would have been liquidated in its entirety - intelligence indicated the exact coordinates of its hideouts.

The largest megacities, strategic industrial facilities and military centers, control and communications centers would be finished with one single massive attack. Mighty nuclear arsenals The Soviet Union simply would not have had time to take advantage: there was no command, and no one had already given it, and in the absence of leaders in the command centers, any most serious enemy was blinded and immobilized.

When immediately taken satellite photographs would show that only ruins and ashes remained on the territory of the once powerful superpower. When the political leadership of the member states of the alliance, together with the NATO generals, would try to celebrate the victory not in the “cold”, but in the “hot” war. In those very moments when all the “winners” would raise glasses of champagne and sound “victorious” toasts, something unthinkable and incomprehensible would suddenly happen.

It would seem that the enemy, who had been silent forever, seemed to awaken. The most sophisticated equipment would have notified, and vaunted intelligence would have immediately confirmed, that the launch of strategic ballistic missiles had been discovered from the ruins and ashes. Thousands of nuclear missiles would rush in the opposite direction from the initial launch, towards the aggressor, who risked being the first to press the “red button”, counting on a quickly carried out successful operation.

The same feelings and emotions: surprise, fear, panic, but also not very long lasting. All this would last exactly as long as it would take ballistic missiles to reach specific Western states and release its deadly cargo. Reaching the targets, thousands more warheads would fly out of the missiles' heads like bees.

With incredible effort and colossal costs, the missile defenses built would intercept almost nothing. Soviet missiles, called “Satan” in the West, would begin to erase large cities, military bases, and command centers from the earth’s surface. No winners, no losers, no one. A nuclear winter would quietly descend on the planet.

This is how the system called “Perimeter” in the Soviet Union, which in Western expert circles acquired the chilling name “Dead Hand,” would react. These would be the consequences last argument Soviet (and now Russian) strategic forces. Despite the numerous “Doomsday Machines” invented by science fiction writers, guaranteeing retribution to any enemies who could get there and completely eliminate it, only “Perimeter” will truly be able to do this.

However, the Perimeter system for inevitable retribution is in such a strictly classified regime that there were many doubts about its actual existence and there were just as many rumors. There were also rumors about the famous American SDI system. It was said that everything was a bluff in order to quickly collapse economic situation Soviet Union. So, what can you learn about from open sources?

System of inevitable retaliation "Perimeter"

No one who was privy to one of the strictest secrets that the Soviet military “defense industry” hid would have known about the presence of “Perimeter” in the former Union, unless one person, an engineer who developed it, decided to move to the United States. There he successfully managed to give out information of particular importance about the existence of a system for obtaining an American passport without problems. Already in 1993, the influential American newspaper The New York Times spread a panicked article with a sensational headline about an alleged “Doomsday machine” in Russia.

American newspapermen called the system immoral. “Perimeter” had to remain on combat duty for several more years after its “exposure” because, according to the START-1 agreement, it was removed from combat duty in 1995.

A little later in December 2001, director of the nonproliferation project nuclear weapons Some information was given out in which he shared the so-called “truth of life.” American strategic nuclear forces(SNF) has been formed in such a configuration as to pose a constant military threat to Russian nuclear and economic facilities. Even during the moments of negotiations with the participation of President V. Putin, they keep his office in the Kremlin at gunpoint.

In December 2011, one of the newspapers published an interview with the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces S. Karakaev, in which he confirmed that Perimeter is still operating. Moreover, he has to carry out combat duty, and in the event of a necessary retaliatory strike, when there is no longer a chance of delivering a signal to some parts of the launchers, these commands can come from Perimeter missiles.

Perimeter Reckoning Weapon System: Auto Launch

Wired magazine wrote that Russia has the only weapon in the world that guarantees the use of a retaliatory nuclear strike against its enemies, even if no one has to make a decision about it. It was also emphasized that with the help of a unique system, the counterattack would occur automatically.

Kiselyov’s famous phrase that Russia is the only country that can “turn the United States into radioactive ash” was discussed all over the world. At the same time, the presenter of Vesti Nedeli briefly spoke about Perimeter. But how exactly does this system work?

In the same Wired magazine, one of the system’s development engineers, Vladimir Yarynich, reported information about the algorithm for the operation of “Perimeter”. The system was designed to remain dormant until activated by a high-ranking official in an emergency. Then it would begin to monitor sensors - seismic, radiation, atmospheric pressure- to identify signs of a nuclear explosion.

Before launching a retaliatory strike, the system must check four “ifs”:

• If the system were activated, it would determine whether nuclear weapons were used in the vastness of the USSR;
• If this were so, the system would check the connection with the General Staff;
• If there was a connection, then the system would produce automatic shutdown. After some time - from 15 minutes to 1 hour, which passed without any hint of an attack, she would assume that the list of officials capable of ordering a strike was still in place;
• If there was no connection, the “Perimeter” would make a decision about the onset of “Doomsday”, and immediately it would give the rights to make this decision to anyone who could then stay in a deep and protected bunker, bypassing the usual numerous authorities.

Such a system was proposed in official source, but how things really are can only be guessed at.

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