The development of combat railway complexes (BZHRK) of the new generation has been discontinued. The topic is closed, at least for the near future. This was informed by a very informed representative of the Russian defense-industrial complex.

A year ago it seemed that soon the rocket trains under the name "Barguzin" would begin to be commissioned by the Strategic Missile Force. Let us recall the chronology of the beginning and end of the service of the national strategic military unitary enterprise "Molodets". By the way, completely unique. In the United States, such a complex could not be created, although they tried to make it the first in the early 1960s.

The order "On the creation of a mobile combat railway missile complex (BZHRK) with a rocket RT-23" was signed on January 13, 1969. BJRC was to form the basis of the retaliatory strike group, as it possessed increased survivability and was more likely to survive the enemy's first strike.

The main developer was appointed KB "Yuzhnoye" - this is Dnepropetrovsk, the present Dnieper of the independent and hostile Russia of Ukraine. The main designers of the BZHRK were academicians brothers Alexei and Vladimir Utkin - outstanding creators of Soviet rocket weapons.

For BZHRK designed simply magnificent even by the standards of today solid rocket missile 15Ж61. The entire missile complex was named RT23 UTTKh. His flight tests took place from 1985 to 1987 at a military spaceport in Plesetsk. 32 launches were made - all successful. In the course of the tests, BZHRK traveled along the roads of the country for almost half a million kilometers.

The first rocket regiment with the RT-23UTTX stood on alert in October 1987. By the beginning of 1991, three missile divisions of combat railway complexes were deployed. Even earlier in the United States, having conducted a lot of "spy" research and experiments, they were convinced that it is not in a position to confidently track the movement of the BJRK on the roads of the USSR and are guaranteed to destroy them.

And before the collapse of the Soviet Union, after the meeting of the leaders of the USSR and Great Britain, Mikhail Gorbachev and Margaret Thatcher, restrictions were imposed on patrolling routes for the BZHRK, they began to carry out combat duty only at points of permanent deployment, without leaving the country's railway network. That is their main advantage - mobility and secrecy are nullified.

In January 1992, Boris Yeltsin and George Bush (senior) signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty START II. According to his conditions, before 2003 Russia had to withdraw from the armament and liquidate all of its BZHRK - only 12 trains with 36 launchers. Despite Russia's withdrawal from the START II treaty in 2002, the destruction of BZHRK was not stopped. In early May 2005, the then commander of the Strategic Missile Force, Colonel General Nikolay Solovtsov, officially announced that the BZHRK had been removed from combat duty. By 2007, all trains and launchers were disposed of.

However, in September 2009, the command of the Strategic Missile Force expressed the opinion that the development of missile trains of a new generation with Russian-made missiles might soon begin.

Of course, BZHRK was sorry - these are really very powerful and almost missile strategic missile complexes for any of our enemy. But it is now clear that their removal from the armament was inevitable even without burdensome conditions for START II. The rockets produced in Ukraine and serviced by Ukrainian specialists in the current reality are nonsense. By the way, Kiev forbade the specialists of "Yuzhmash" to cooperate with the Strategic Missile Forces of Russia in all directions.

And reincarnation БЖРК was possible only with rockets of a domestic production. In December 2011, the commander of the Strategic Missile Force, Sergei Karakaev, almost officially announced the beginning of the revival of the BZHRK.

And in April 2013, Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov said that the Moscow Heat Engineering Institute is embarking on experimental and design developments, the new generation of railway missile systems.

At the end of 2014, the command of the Strategic Missile Forces once again, as reported in the media, publicly confirmed that the BZHRK would revive. Even information has appeared that the adapted ballistic missiles of the Yars complex will be used as their missile weapons.

And, finally, at the end of last year it was announced that successful ballistic missile tests for an intercontinental ballistic missile for a combat railway missile complex had been successfully completed. The launch was carried out by the mass-size model of the Yars missile. The press was then filled with arguments about how the future Russian BZHRK, which was given the name "Barguzin", will look.

Alas, at the end of 2017 it turned out that this "Barguzin" goes into a long suck on the siding, and without becoming a full-fledged military railway complex. Although officially this has not yet been announced.

Technically, to create a Russian BZHRK, completely superior to the one that was designed in the USSR, is more than real. Most likely, it's about money. We have enough strategic missiles for a retaliatory strike. In the Navy, submarine missile carriers of the new generation are being put into operation. The Strategic Missile Forces puts "Yarsy" into service. For the Air Force, new cruise missiles with a strategic range of flight are tested. And it is unreasonable to start creating another very expensive nuclear missile system in the current economic conditions.

Experimental design work on "Barguzin" conducted. The experiment with the launch was successful. If urgently needed, our missile train will quickly become on the rails. In the meantime, we will forget about him.