Vladimir Putin said that Russia is completing the creation of a nuclear forces control center, which is almost completely protected from nuclear attacks and equipped with the most advanced equipment and communications facilities. Moscow has already seriously modernized its nuclear triad in recent years. Now it's time to update its management system, which Russia inherited from the USSR and was developed on the territory of Ukraine.
"As I was informed, the creation of a new control center with almost absolute protection, including strategic nuclear forces, is at the final stage," Vladimir Putin said, speaking on Wednesday at a meeting with the leadership of the defense Ministry, defense industry enterprises and relevant Federal agencies. The safety margin of such a control center "will be exceptionally high," the commander-in-chief stressed.
The survivability of the control systems of Russia's strategic nuclear forces (SNF) must be ensured even if they are attacked by a nuclear strike, the President was quoted as saying by TASS. Putin noted that such systems currently at the disposal of the army are in good condition, but "no matter how modern and advanced they are today, you can't stand still." "We need to think about what will happen tomorrow and the day after tomorrow," the head of state stressed and instructed the military and representatives of the defense industry to report to him on long – term plans for the development of promising models.
On the one hand, it is important that all equipment, machinery, communications systems, control of strategic nuclear forces "continue to be modern, simple and reliable as a Kalashnikov," on the other to equipment and connectivity consistent, updated planning, and in them was based on advanced domestic technology and engineering solutions, said the President.
The goal of modernizing the control nodes of Russia's nuclear shield is obvious. As the President stated at the same meeting, the world's arms control system is being shaken and degraded after the us withdrawal from the ABM Treaty, the us breaking agreements on intermediate-range and shorter-range missiles, and taking into account the unclear fate of the strategic offensive arms Treaty (start-3). Under these conditions, Russia cannot fail to modernize its nuclear triad-land-based, air-based, and sea-based weapons. As Putin recalled, " about half of the strategic missile forces have received the latest YARS systems, the Sarmat Intercontinental ballistic missile is being tested according to the schedule, and the new Borey-A lead submarine has been introduced into the Navy.
In the expert community, there is an opinion that if the ammunition and carrier systems are constantly being improved (for example, the Russian YARS mobile complexes and the American B61-12 precision nuclear bomb are called 5th-generation weapons), the structure of the strategic nuclear forces control points has not changed since the cold war and remains in fact "simple as a Kalashnikov assault rifle".
"We are talking about a secure command post of a stationary type. The shelter where the command post is located has the ability to protect against direct hits of the most modern weapons, - Konstantin Sivkov, Deputy President of the Russian Academy of rocket and artillery Sciences, doctor of military Sciences, told the newspaper VZGLYAD. – The command post includes a number of other systems. This is a mobile control center, air. This is all combined with air patrols carried out by aircraft that are in service with the Russian strategic nuclear forces."
Now, following the development of strategic nuclear forces, it is time to modernize the strategic nuclear forces control systems, believes Dmitry Stefanovich, a researcher at the IMEMO RAS Center for international security. In his Telegram channel, the expert pointed out: at Putin's meeting with the leadership of the defense Ministry and the defense industry, they discussed the development of analytical and operational capabilities of stationary and mobile control points. It was said that after modernization, " these control points allow you to get comprehensive data on the situation in real time and on the basis of this information to assess the situation and make informed decisions." Apparently, we can conclude about a qualitatively new level of automated decision support systems, "in common parlance – elements of artificial intelligence", - said Stefanovich.
Combined with the creation of fortified "megabunkers" and an emphasis on their survival, including in the conditions of nuclear strikes, this indicates that Russian strategists are calculating the readiness of the strategic missile forces for a deep retaliatory strike against the enemy, the expert believes.
According to open sources, the current system for managing nuclear forces was created at the last stage of the nuclear confrontation between the USSR and the United States. The system was developed in what is now Ukraine, at the Yuzhnoye design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, starting in 1974. The complex of automatic control of a massive retaliatory nuclear strike was called "Perimeter", and in NATO terminology – Dead Hand ("Dead hand").
The principle of operation of the "Perimeter" is something like this: if the missile attack warning System (SPRn) reports an attack, and the sensors record seismic tremors and radiation contamination, the system concludes that a nuclear strike has been carried out on our country. The message is transmitted via the system communication and control "Kazbek" to subscriber terminals (in other words, nuclear suitcases) President, defense Minister and chief of staff. If "Kazbek" does not respond, "Perimeter" requests the Central command post (CCP) of the strategic missile forces, located in Vlasikha, near Odintsovo.
Of course, the location of the country's military and political leadership and the command post of the missile forces must also withstand a direct hit from a nuclear bomb. The publication "Arguments and facts" claimed that the CCP is located at a depth of 30 meters, which raises some doubts, given the capabilities of modern nuclear charges. After all, even the bunker built for the needs of the Soviet leadership in the 1970s (object GO-42 on Taganka in Moscow), was located deeper – more than 50 m from the surface of the earth. For comparison, the NORAD command center (the American equivalent of "perimeter"), presumably, is located at a depth of 600 meters.
If there is no connection to the CCP, the "Perimeter" is supposed to operate with minimal human involvement. If the command post receives an order from higher levels of management the strategic missile forces, that initiated the command 15П011 rocket whose warhead replaces transmitter which transmits the commands to start all the launchers and command posts of SRF.
In any case, this is how the system should work, judging by the publications that have appeared in the last decade in open sources. This is primarily an interview given to the American magazine Wired in 2009 by retired Colonel Vladimir Yarynich, who was introduced as one of the members of the Dead hand development team.
When creating the" perimeter", the Soviet leadership debated whether to leave live people, real officers in the control center, or completely trust the automation, military expert Alexander Golts told the VZGLYAD newspaper.
"After all, it was decided that the person should be left.
We remember the story of 1983, when Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov made the right decision when he received a signal about a massive missile attack on the Soviet Union. For various reasons, no matter how perfect automation may be, the country's leadership will always distrust it in this case. The final decision should be left to the person, not artificial intelligence, " Golts is sure.
The location of the command post (or points), for obvious reasons, is kept secret. It is suggested that the nodes of the "Perimeter" – underground structures in the thickness of rocks-are most likely located in the most remote regions of Russia from the borders. "In the Urals-the center of absolute security. The control points are located in such rocks that they do not even have any external exits. Such a center cannot be destroyed by any existing nuclear weapons, " Alexey Arbatov, head of the Center for international security, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told VZGLYAD. The interlocutor also admits that the control points of the strategic missile forces may be located in European Russia, not excluding Moscow - "at great depths that can withstand a direct nuclear strike."
Possible evidence of the main Ural center appeared during a critical period for the country, at the time of the collapse of the USSR. As noted by Izvestia, Boris Yeltsin in the days of the 1991 putsch instructed Deputy Prime Minister Oleg Lobov to organize operational management from a "secret bunker in the event of a nuclear war" near Sverdlovsk. It was also reported that the head Of the Committee on economic reform, Sergey Krasavchenko, was directly organizing the reserve government from the bunker.
According to the Washington Post, the Strategic command of the us armed forces believes that the main nodes of the "Perimeter" are located in the branched complexes of bomb shelters under the kosvinsky Kamen mountains (North of the Sverdlovsk region) and Yamantau in the East of Bashkiria. In particular, it was claimed that even in the mid and late 1990s, American satellites recorded some large-scale construction on Yamantau. However, it is likely that the potential enemy was simply misled about the true location of the "Dead hand".
The current commander of the strategic missile forces, Colonel-General Sergei Karakaev, assured the whole world in 2011: the Perimeter system is preserved and is on combat duty. However, in 2018, another Colonel-General-former chief of the General staff of the missile forces Viktor Esin-stated in an interview with Zvezda: if the United States withdraws from the INF Treaty and places medium-and shorter-range missiles in Europe, the "Perimeter" may be ineffective. The enemy will have time to strike at Russian missile silos before the response system works, Esin expressed concern. The Americans, as you know, have withdrawn from the INF TREATY – and Russia is modernizing the command post, which Putin spoke about on Wednesday.
Modernization of control systems for nuclear forces is going in at least two directions, military expert Golts believes. "This is the most stable receipt of information about the current military situation from the missile attack warning System and other sources, its rapid analysis and report to the country's top leadership. And the second direction is the possibility of a counter-strike, " the source said.
"Now automated control systems are being actively implemented in the nuclear weapons control centers
and information analysis, artificial intelligence is widely used. Moreover, it is planned to continue automating nuclear missile launch systems and speed up decision-making on this crucial issue, " Arbatov believes.
However, according to the expert, this approach to the development of nuclear missile launch systems is not correct. "The focus should not be on automation and speed of systems, but on their "survivability", that is, the ability to wait a long time for an order to launch a nuclear strike without compromising the system, " he said.
Arbatov also highlighted a new threat to automated nuclear weapons launch centers – cyberdiversion. "All systems related to digital technologies require protection from cyber attacks. If the missile is launched by a button, no cyber attack will affect it: the officer approached, turned the key – and the missile flew. And if it is automated and centralized, then any modern computer becomes vulnerable, " the source said.
Irina Yarovaya, Andrey Rezchikov, Artur Priymak
