#6570 #6571
#12 - JRL 6569
BBC Monitoring
Russian TV shows missile-carrying trains saved by Putin
SOURCE: Ren TV, Moscow, in Russian 0955 gmt 17 Nov 02
Presenter: There are disagreements among the military as to which part of the military machine we have inherited from the Soviet Union needs to be destroyed and which part of it Russia cannot do without.
Correspondent: Although it looks clumsy and slow, this missile system is a highly mobile and mighty weapon. Only six months ago, under a directive from the defence minister and the chief of the General Staff, these missile-carrying trains were supposed to be scrapped. However, at the Russian president's personal instruction, the destruction of nuclear missile trains was suspended.
Nikolay Solovtsov, Strategic Missile Troops Commander: The president of the Russian Federation, or the supreme commander, has ruled that the missile division armed with a combat railways missile system should remain within the force composition of the Missile Troops and continue to be on alert duty as a missile division till 2006.
Correspondent: The decision was taken by the president and by the Security Council after it became absolutely clear what Russia's response to the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty should be. Clearly, this is the most real and reasonable decision for our country to take, because Russia is not creating its own global anti-missile defence system and therefore reserves the right not to destroy heavy nuclear missiles with multiple warheads. Besides, the decision to scrap these systems was taken prior to the US withdrawal from the ABM Treaty.
We can show you a unique operation of preparing the railway missile system for an imitation launch. The designers of the system have thought of every possible detail. First this rod is pulled out, it moves the wires of the contact power-supply system aside. Then the roof of the railway carriage is lifted and the container with a missile is put in a vertical position. The system is ready for launch.
And now have a look at how it all happens in an operating mode. Everything is done ten times quicker. What you are seeing now is the last operational launch practice of the railway missile system from the Plesetsk test range which was carried out about 10 years ago.
Aleksandr Sinkevich, regiment commander: The launch was successful. All warheads hit their targets. The Missile Troops chief commander assessed the launch as excellent and listed me, as the commander of a regiment within the launch combat crew, first.
Correspondent: The results of that launch exceeded the forecasts not only of Russia's probable enemies, but of the designers of the missile system, too.
Aleksandr Panenko, technical supervisor: It is not by chance that the Americans have nicknamed this missile the scalpel. In terms of accuracy, it has no equivalents in the world. When we conducted practice launches from the northern test range, then eight warhead sections hit the stake and two had a deviation of figure beeped out - which is of course a very good result.
Correspondent: Incidentally, the phrase "to hit the stake" can be understood literally. If you position a stake on the Kamchatka test range and use it as a target for the missile, the latter - having covered an area of 8,000 km - will hit that very stake. In order to understand what it looks like in reality, we are now showing you video footage of a launch of a similar ballistic missile.
What you see now is unique video footage of the warhead being delivered to Kamchatka. The name indistinct seismic acoustic station registers the fall of the warhead to the given spot. Now the warhead and its fragments need to be located.
Unidentified helicopter pilot: There it is. Can you see it? These is marshland all around here: that is why the crater is smaller.
Correspondent: This larch was chosen as the practice target. All the flattering descriptions of the accuracy of the missile system have been proven right.
Eduard Khizhnyak, unit commander, standing by a crater near the larch: This is where the object Russ: izdeliye fell. How accurate was the object's fall in the target area of the Kura field? Well, I cannot give you the exact figures but, as you can see for yourselves, the missile practically hit the very stake it was fired at.
Correspondent: As of today, the combat railway missile system Russ: BZhRK remains part of the force composition of Russian armed forces. Its future will obviously depend on how the military reform proceeds.
Presenter: You may have noticed that our report showed the nuclear train in motion. In order for us to film the train as it covered a distance of only a few hundred metres, the day before the filming the commanding officers contacted Washington to inform the American side that the train would be set in motion exclusively for a TV programme and that it would not leave its servicing area.
What does this detail signify? Of course, it shows an unprecedented level of trust between two former adversaries. And also it shows that nuclear targets are increasingly becoming more abstract, and quite different methods of combat are required to deal with the real adversary. One can hardly use warheads to hit terrorists, can one?
Video shows the nuclear train in motion, being prepared for practice launch.
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