In connection with the latest events in the world: the crisis of power and armed conflict in Ukraine, the clash of interests and the activation of militants of the Islamic state 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 potential, or is preparing to get it, not a single person in the world can be completely confident in their future. And the more terrible and foggy the future should 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 in any way? Are our European and American partners stopping the previously signed agreements? And why then the same agreements did not prevent them from starting to shell Iraq, bombing Syria and Libya? Why is it necessary to have a wave of “orange revolutions” 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 options for answering the questions asked can be the idea of the existence of such an ideal weapon as the Perimeter Guaranteed Retribution System.
Creation concept
Let's go back a moment and imagine how our family 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-placed strike could be the last for our country. And the more intense the atmosphere, the more information about the American concept of limited nuclear war appeared in the press. According to this doctrine, the delivery of a preventive strike on the territory of the USSR implied 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 breakdown of the strategic missile forces communication lines.
What could a decapitated and practically destroyed state do in such a situation? Only in the end, loudly and beautifully slam the door, so much so that this "clap" is remembered for a long time. To give the last, already pointless battle, to deliver a retaliatory nuclear strike when there is no one to control the missiles. It was with such thoughts that the leading Soviet scientists embarked on the development of one of the most terrible modern weapons, which forever remained in memory as the "weapon of the Last Judgment."
So, what is the Russian Perimeter system? And what is its main feature? The system "Perimeter" - "Dead Hand" is a complex of automatic control of a massive nuclear strike. Its main purpose is to ensure the guaranteed launch of all nuclear missiles that are in the arsenal of the USSR, in the event that a crushing blow is hit by the enemy in the country, which will destroy all command units capable of giving an order for 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 already being carried out beyond the death line, that the system received in the West its second name - "Dead Hand". In the East, it was called even more precisely - "Hand from the tomb."
Principle of operation
The developers of the system for protecting the perimeter of the country's borders were faced with two global tasks. Firstly, the system had to be endowed with a kind of artificial intelligence, so that at the right moment she could independently understand that her time had come. Secondly, it was also necessary to debug options for turning off and starting the program in case of unforeseen situations. Simply put, it should have been able to monitor the state of the environment, checking about a hundred different indicators, and also have some kind of “stop-crane” that responds to a direct shutdown order.
After several fruitless attempts, the developers still managed to create a complex that, no matter how incredible it sounds, fully met all their requirements. So what did they do?
As you know, any rocket existing in this world is able to fly into the air only in one case - with a clear order. The procedure for transmitting such an order is ridiculously simple. A command code is transmitted through the command communication lines, which removes all the locks from the system and gives permission to ignite the engines. The rocket rises into the air and rushes towards its target. But what to do when there is no opportunity to give an order?
In this case, the obligation to issue orders was delegated to the Perimeter system. 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, she made a decision and gave the command to start.
At the signal of a smart program, a single missile flew into the air, which flew not at the alleged enemy, but through the main locations of the Soviet nuclear missile complex. It is this missile, which, like the entire complex as a whole, had the name "Perimeter". And it was she who, with the help of the radio device located on her, gave the signal to all the country's military power. As soon as the code was received, all active and mothballed launch vehicles fired in the direction of the alleged enemy. So a 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 a base missile, but subsequently settled on the MP-UR1000UTTKh.
The preliminary 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 Design Bureau of Optical Instrumentation. 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 conducted 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 V.V. Korobushin. Ten identical missiles were allotted for the experiment, but the first launches were so successful that it was decided to stop at seven volleys.
In parallel, a special launcher was also created - 15P716. According to the data received, its main components are a command missile and receiving devices, which provide orders and codes from command missiles.
According to unverified data, the launcher is a high-security mine complex of the OS type, but the possibility of the location of command missiles in other types of carriers is also not ruled out.
After flight tests, the creators of the complex were tasked with developing additional advanced functions that would enable them to issue missile launch orders not only to ground-based complexes, but also to nuclear submarines and long-range and naval missile aircraft (both on airfields and on alert 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 no exact description of all system components 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 system of protecting the perimeter of the state’s borders 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, while on constant combat alert, the Perimeter receives data from several tracking systems, including from early warning radars about a missile attack. 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 at these points that the most mystical component of the "Perimeter" is based - its main autonomous control and command system. This installation, which has all the signs 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 operation is extremely simple and is based on the verification of four basic conditions.
After analyzing all the data received, the system concludes whether a nuclear attack was committed. After that, the presence of communications with the General Staff is checked. If the connection is present, then the system already starting to gain momentum is switched off again. If no one answers at the headquarters, then the program tries to contact the main missile defense shield of the country - Kazbek. If they do not answer there, then the system delegates the right to make a decision to any person who is currently in the command bunker. If no order follows, then only then does the program take effect.
Another version of the system eliminates the possibility of the existence of artificial intelligence. It involves the manual launch of a command missile. According to this theory, a magic nuclear case is in the hands of the head of state. And when receiving information about a massive nuclear strike, the country's top officials can put the system into combat mode.
After that, if she does not receive new signals within an hour and cannot communicate with any command center, the Perimeter system of Russia will automatically begin the procedure of striking back. If a false alarm signal arrives at the headquarters, then all the Perimeter security systems will again go into watch mode. (Presumably the entire cancellation process takes about 15 minutes.)
Location of the "Perimeter"
According to unverified sources, the main weapon of Russia - all Perimeter security systems - are located in the Urals, in the area of the Kosvinsky Stone mountain . This mountain range, located near Konzhakovsky stone in the Northern Urals, reaches a height of 1519 meters and is composed mainly of pyroxenites and duanites. Due to its, one can say, natural origin, this bunker, according to the American journalist Blair, is a subject of real admiration from American strategists, since from there, through the entire granite stratum, it is possible to maintain communication using a VLF radio signal (propagating even in nuclear war) with all systems of Russian strategic aviation.
Initially, the place for the construction of the bunker was spent horizontal platinum mines, which themselves were already a secret object. Duanites, which are the main mineral for the manufacture of refractories, block scanning radio emission and do not allow enemy radio signals to detect the exact location of the 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 Kytlym village is gradually expanding to the size of a military town, work is underway to build new houses for soldiers and officers, and other infrastructure is being installed.
The main weapon system
The main elements of the security system ("Perimeter", as the reader already understood) is an autonomous command and control system, which includes all kinds of data transmission and analysis centers and command missile systems.
Among the complexes included in the "Perimeter", we can separately distinguish:
- The stationary center for combat control of the system, located in the Sverdlovsk region under the Kosvinsky stone.
- Mobile center of combat control.
- 1353 combat control center, located in the Sumy region, in the city of Glukhov (from 1990 to 1991) and now moved 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 soil complex of command missiles.
- "Perimeter-RC" - an upgraded 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 a similar level and scale has been a matter of more than a decade. And its creation would not have been possible without the competent and operational work of many talented scientists. Since the Perimeter (the Dead Hand protection system), like all its components, is still absolutely secret, it is not possible to find detailed information about its creators and their future fate.
Among the main developers of the Perimeter system, the name is known only to one person - Vladimir Yarynich, who continued to live and work in the USA after the collapse of the USSR, where he told Wired magazine about the existence of the Perimeter guaranteed retaliation system. (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. So, many enterprises took part in the design and installation of equipment. The main ones are the NPO Impulse under the direction of V. I. Melnikov, the Central Design Bureau Geophysics led by G. F. Ignatiev, the Central Design Bureau together with B. R. Aksyutin and many others.
Work on the Perimeter was supervised by so many different ministries and departments that it still seems inexplicable that the creation of the complex has been kept secret for so long.
Current state and operation of the complex
Little is known about the true fate of Dead Hands. According to documents, the country's perimeter security system remained in service until June 1995. And then, as part of the agreement on general disarmament, it was removed from combat duty. According to other sources, this momentous event occurred in September 1995, and the perimeter security system was not removed, but only modernized. And the 15A11 missile was replaced by the new generation RT-2PM Topol command missile.
There is no exact data on the current state of affairs anywhere. However, in 2009, the American magazine Wired again told its readers that the weapons of Russia - the Perimeter system - still exist and are still functioning. This information was confirmed in December 2011 by the Commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Lieutenant General S.V. Karakaev, who again in his interview said that the complex was in a dormant state and was on alert.
Also, from unconfirmed sources it is known that it was the Perimeter (the Dead Hand defense system) that was still on the fighting post and allowed Vladimir Putin to state that Russia could destroy the United States in less than thirty minutes if it wanted to. In principle, today is such a time that sometimes it will not be superfluous to scare the opponent, so to speak, to protect the interests of his state.
I would like to believe that the Perimeter system of 2014 is still in working condition and in all its characteristics is not inferior to previous models.
Media about the "Perimeter"
As mentioned earlier, the main publications about the system appeared in the 90s of the last century in Western and American journals. It was the Wired newspaper that renamed the Perimeter system to Dead Hand. A number of publications have also been published in a number of Japanese periodicals. It was with their light hand that the system of guaranteed retaliation became known as the "Hand of the coffin."
On the territory of the Russian Federation, like all post-Soviet republics, articles on the complex are extremely few. Only Rossiyskaya Gazeta mentioned its work in its reviews. The 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 counter strike
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 based on the same operating principle as the Perimeter system. In the United States, this complex is called the Mirror.
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In addition to this system, the United States also had its own complex of command missiles, located on ten mine 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 is, it is still a weapon of the past. It was created in the conditions of the Cold War. And it is unlikely that today 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.