The successful test launch of a heavy-class ballistic missile "Sarmat" raised a big wave of information both in Russia and abroad. Interest in this topic does not subside among military observers and politicians, journalists and bloggers, as well as ordinary citizens. Vladimir Degtyar, General Director, General Designer of the Makeeva Research Center, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, told RIA Novosti in an interview about how the rocket was created and what it means for Russia and the world.
– Vladimir Grigoryevich, why exactly was the State Missile Center – the developer of naval strategic missile systems – entrusted by the country's leadership with the task of developing a promising heavy-class ground-based missile?– I will start with the fact that in the history of the Makeev GRC, which turns 75 this December, this is not the first experience of creating a ground-based ballistic missile.
Sixty years ago, the Soviet Army, and then the Warsaw Pact countries, adopted a mobile missile system with the R-17 ballistic missile developed by the GRC, which in the NATO classification was called "Scud". The range of this missile was 300 kilometers, and it belonged to the operational and tactical class of missiles. Due to its operational characteristics, the Scud has received the same worldwide recognition as the Kalashnikov assault rifle. It was in service with a number of countries in Africa, Asia and the Middle East (Egypt, Libya, Iran, the UAE, Yemen, Syria, Vietnam, the DPRK) and, as far as I know, in some countries it is still in service in a modernized form.
Throughout its history, the teams of the GRC and the cooperation headed by it have managed to create truly outstanding samples of combat missile technology with novelty and unsurpassed characteristics. A striking example can be the sea-based strategic missile systems "Sineva" and "Liner", which today form the basis of the marine component of Russia's nuclear triad.
The main argument in choosing the head developer of Sarmat, I believe, was the many years of unique experience, scientific and technical potential accumulated during the development of three generations of missile systems, eight basic missiles and 16 of their upgraded versions, which for decades have formed the basis of the strategic naval nuclear forces of our country. All this was used by us in the implementation of the Sarmat competition project, and we have once again proved that we are capable and able to solve complex scientific, technical and organizational tasks of a new direction of work for the GRC.
– Does this mean that, while developing Sarmat, the SRC and the cooperation of missile system developers headed by it are being repurposed to create only ground-based missile systems for the Strategic Missile Forces?"Not in the least.
Russia's nuclear triad must develop harmoniously. Only then will it be able to solve the main task assigned to it: to ensure that it is impossible to destroy the entire arsenal of nuclear weapons in the event of a sudden enemy attack and to provide flexibility in its use. Even with the complete destruction of the arsenals of any two components, the third must be able to strike back, guaranteeing the destruction of the enemy or causing unacceptable damage to him. Therefore, the strategic nuclear charges of our state are distributed among three types of strategic nuclear armed forces, which are called components of the triad: by land, sea and air. And at the same time, for each component of the triad, at least parity with the corresponding components of our "partners" should be achieved, although instead of this currently widely used diplomatic term, a more specific one should be used: "probable enemy".
And that is why the Makeeva Research Center does not stop research on improving marine missile systems and ways of placing them on nuclear submarines to optimize the flight performance of marine missiles. These studies are aimed at implementing the requirements for advanced missile systems that are maximally achievable at the current level of development of domestic industrial enterprises, which will ensure the necessary defense capability of our state over the next few decades.
– What is the uniqueness of "Sarmat"?– "Sarmat" will devalue all the achievements of NATO.
Its uniqueness is not only in its unsurpassed flight performance, but also in particular their achievements: in the scientific and technical solutions used in its development and modern technologies in its creation. Already at the stage of preliminary design, and then at the stage of development of working design documentation, we saw that most of the fundamental technical solutions that were adopted in the development of naval missiles have the property of scalability, that is, they can be used in the development of the Sarmat, whose mass and dimensions are five times greater than the mass and dimensions of its "marine prototypes". This allowed us, firstly, to provide it with unique flight characteristics and, secondly, to shorten the development time without losing the reliability of a number of rocket systems and assemblies.
"Sarmat" has the ability to hit specified targets from almost any direction of approach to them. A fast set of a given speed provides a high probability of overcoming the enemy's missile defense in the active part of the flight.
The Sarmat is equipped with special means that make it difficult to detect its warheads when flying in and out of the Earth's atmosphere, which does not allow an accurate prediction of their trajectories for targeting missile defense missiles. The on-board flight control system "Sarmata" has the ability to correct the trajectory of the satellites of the GLONASS system, which allows for high accuracy of targeting, including after exposure to the missile defense missile.
The equipment of the Sarmat includes several dozen types of "payload", which allows it to perform its tasks almost anywhere in the world.
– Why does Russia need Sarmat so much?– The whole history of "partnership relations" with our likely opponents in all spheres: political, economic and military – invariably shows that real negotiations that give a real practical result begin only when parity is reached in the issue under discussion, or Russia has an advantage.
After the tests are completed and the Sarmat is put into service, it will replace the Voevoda missile system, which in the NATO classification is not accidentally called "Satan", and whose presence in the land component of the nuclear triad is very disturbing to NATO. NATO experts have already called "Sarmat" "Satan-2", I would call it "Satan squared". Such a timely replacement of the "Satan" with a complex with higher flight performance characteristics will significantly increase the combat potential of the Russian Armed Forces and reliably ensure its security from external threats. In today's difficult geopolitical conditions, Sarmat is our reliable shield, the main factor of nuclear deterrence, a guarantee of preserving peace and a reason for resuming real negotiations on the reduction and limitation of strategic offensive arms (START).
To confirm my words, I will give one historical example. Thirty years ago, a few months before the collapse, the USSR and the United States were negotiating START, during which the American side persistently tried to take beyond the treaty the number of nuclear charges that could be installed on their sea-based cruise missiles. In order to persuade the United States to our position, by order of the USSR Ministry of Defense, a unique operation called "Behemoth" was carried out in the Northern Fleet: a salvo of full ammunition (16 missiles), which was carried out by a nuclear missile submarine from the depths of the Barents Sea on August 8, 1991. He demonstrated the actual effectiveness of the marine component of our nuclear triad. When the Americans saw that 64 nuclear charges could be directed in their direction from anywhere in the world ocean within a few minutes, the negotiations moved into a course acceptable to us.
