Inside the Soviet Doomsday Machine. Inside the Soviet Doomsday Machine Why the book is worth reading
The system's technical name was "Perimeter", but many called it "Dead Hand". Illustration: Ryan Kelly.
Valery Yarynich casts nervous glances over his shoulder. Dressed in a brown leather jacket, the 72-year-old former Soviet colonel sat in the back of the dimly lit Iron Gate restaurant in Washington. It's March 2009 - the Berlin Wall fell two decades ago, but the thin and fit Yarynich is nervous, like an informant hiding from the KGB. He begins to speak almost in a whisper, quietly but firmly.
“The Perimeter system is very, very good,” he says. “We remove the greatest responsibility from senior politicians and military men,” he looks around again.
Yarynich talks about the Russian Doomsday Machine. In fact, this is a real doomsday mechanism, a functioning perfect weapon that has always been considered to exist only in the fevered imagination of apocalypse-obsessed science fiction writers and paranoid White House hawks. Historian Lewis Mumford calls it "the central symbol of a scientifically orchestrated nightmare of mass destruction." Yarynich, a 30-year veteran of the Soviet Strategic Missile Forces and the Soviet General Staff, helped build this system.
The point of the system, he explains, was to guarantee an automatic Soviet response to an American nuclear strike. Even if the Kremlin and the Ministry of Defense were destroyed, communications were disrupted, and all military personnel were killed, ground sensors would detect that a crushing blow had been struck and launch the Perimeter system.
The system's technical name was "Perimeter", but some called it "Dead Hand". It was built 30 years ago and remained a secret behind seven seals. With the collapse of the USSR, the very name of the system leaked to the West, but few people noticed it at the time. Although Yarynich and a former Minuteman launch officer named Bruce Blair have written about Perimeter since 1993 in numerous books and newspaper articles, its existence has not penetrated the public consciousness or the corridors of power. The Russian side is still not discussing it, and Americans at the highest levels, including former senior officials in the State Department and White House, say they have never heard of it. When former CIA Director James Woolsey was told about this, his gaze grew cold.
“God grant that the Soviets are prudent,” he said.
The Dead Hand remains shrouded in secrecy, and Yarynich worries that his continued openness puts him at risk. His fears are probably well founded: one Soviet official who spoke to the Americans about the system died after falling down a flight of stairs. But Yarynich still takes risks. He believes the world should know about the Dead Hand. If only because, in the end, it still exists.
The system began operating in 1985, after some of the most dangerous years of the Cold War. Throughout the 1970s, the USSR steadily increased its nuclear power and eventually broke the long-standing US leadership in this area. At the same time, after the Vietnam War, America seemed weak and depressed. Then Ronald Reagan came to power with his promises that the days of recession were over. It was morning in America, he said, but twilight in the Soviet Union.
Part of the new president's hardline approach was to make the Soviets believe that the United States was not afraid of nuclear war. Many of his advisers had long advocated modeling and active planning for nuclear war. These were followers of Herman Kahn, author of the works “On Thermonuclear War” and “Thinking the Unthinkable.” They believed that the side with the largest arsenal and the expressed willingness to use it gained leverage during any crisis.
Either you launch first or convince the enemy that you can strike back even if you are dead. Illustration: Ryan Kelly
The new administration began to actively expand the US nuclear arsenal and put launchers on alert duty. At the Senate confirmation hearings in 1981, Eugene Rostov, taking office as head of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, made it clear that the United States might just be crazy enough to use its weapons. At the same time, he said that Japan “not only survived, but also thrived after the nuclear attack of 1945.” Speaking about a possible US-Soviet nuclear conflict, he said that “by some estimates there would be 10 million casualties on one side and 100,000,000 on the other. But this is not the entire population.”
Meanwhile, in large and small ways, US behavior towards the Soviets took on a harsher character. Soviet Ambassador Anatoly Dobrynin was stripped of his reserved parking pass at the State Department. American troops landed on tiny Grenada to defeat communism in Operation Flash of Fury. American naval exercises were moving ever closer to Soviet waters.
This strategy worked. Moscow soon believed that the new US leadership was truly ready to wage a nuclear war. But the Soviets also became convinced that the United States was now ready to start it. “The policies of the Reagan administration must be seen as adventurous and serving the goal of world domination,” Soviet Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov said at a meeting of the Warsaw Pact chiefs of staff in September 1982.
“In 1941, there were also many among us who warned against war and those who did not believe that war was coming. Thus, the situation is not only very serious, but also very dangerous,” Ogarkov said, referring to the Nazi invasion of the USSR.
A few months later, Reagan made one of the most provocative statements of the Cold War. He announced that the United States intended to develop a shield of lasers and nuclear weapons in space to protect against Soviet warheads. He called it missile defense. Critics dubbed it "Star Wars."
For Moscow, this was confirmation that the United States was planning an attack. It would be impossible for the shield to stop thousands of simultaneously incoming Soviet missiles, so missile defense only made sense as a mop-up method after an initial US strike. First, the United States launches thousands of warheads to destroy Soviet cities and missile silos. Some Soviet missiles would survive a retaliatory launch, but Reagan's shield would be able to block many of them. In this way, Star Wars nullified long-standing doctrines of mutually assured destruction, the principle that ensured that neither side would start a nuclear war because neither would survive a counterattack.
As we now know, Reagan did not plan the first strike. According to his personal diaries and personal letters, he sincerely believed that he was bringing lasting peace. (Reagan once told Gorbachev that he might be the reincarnation of the man who invented the first shield). The system, Reagan insisted, was purely defensive. But according to Cold War logic, if you think the enemy is going to strike, you must do one of two things: either strike first, or convince the enemy that you can strike back even if you are dead.
The Perimeter provides the ability to retaliate, but it is not an immediate response device. It lies in semi-sleep mode until it is turned on by a high-ranking official during a military crisis. Then a network of seismic, radiation and air pressure sensors begins to be monitored for signs of nuclear explosions. Before launching a retaliatory strike, the system must answer four if/then questions: If it was turned on, it must try to determine whether a nuclear weapon actually struck Soviet soil. Then the system will check if there is a connection with the General Staff. If there is one, and if a certain amount of time—just 15 minutes to an hour—passes without further signs of an attack, the machine will assume that the military is still alive and there is someone to order a counterattack, after which it turns off. But if the line to the General Staff is dead, then the perimeter concludes that the Apocalypse has arrived. Then she immediately transfers launch rights to whoever is on duty at that moment deep inside the protected bunker. At this moment, the opportunity to destroy the world is given to the person on duty: maybe a minister, or maybe a 25-year-old junior officer, fresh from military school. And if that person decided to press the button... If/then. If/then. If/then. If/then.
Once launched, the counterattack is controlled by so-called command missiles. Concealed in hardened launchers designed to withstand the massive blast and electromagnetic pulses of a nuclear explosion, these missiles will launch first and then transmit a coded order to the entire arsenal that survives the first strike. Flying over the smoldering, radioactive ruins of the Motherland, and the entire destroyed land, the missile team will destroy the United States.
The United States has also tried to master these technologies, in particular, the deployment of command missiles in the so-called emergency missile interaction system. They also developed seismic and radiation sensors to monitor nuclear tests and explosions around the world. But the US did not combine all this into a system of zombie retribution. They were afraid of accidents and a fatal mistake that could end the whole world.
Instead, American aircraft crews with the capabilities and authority to retaliate patrolled the airspace during the Cold War. Their mission was similar to Perimeter, but the system was more human-based rather than machine-based.
And in keeping with the rules of the Cold War game, the US told the USSR about it. The first mention of the Doomsday Machine was on an NBC radio broadcast in February 1950, when atomic scientist Leo Szilard described a hypothetical system of hydrogen bombs that could transform the world into radioactive dust.
A decade and a half later, the hero of Stanley Kubrick's satirical masterpiece, Dr. Strangelove, tried to introduce this idea into the public consciousness. In the film, an American general sends a bomber to launch a preemptive strike on the USSR. The Soviet ambassador says his country has just deployed a device that will automatically respond to any nuclear attack.
“The whole point of the Doomsday Machine is lost if you keep it a secret!” Dr. Strangelove shouts. - Why didn't you tell the world this?
After all, such a device only works as a deterrent if the enemy is aware of its existence. In the film, the Soviet ambassador only responds: “This should have been announced at the party congress on Monday.”
In real life, however, many Mondays and many party congresses have passed since Perimeter was created. So why didn't the USSR tell the world about him, or at least the White House? There is no evidence that senior Reagan administration officials knew anything about the Soviet doomsday plan. George Shultz, secretary of state for most of Reagan's presidency, said he had never heard of it.
Indeed, the Soviet military did not even inform its own civilian negotiator about limiting nuclear weapons in Europe.
“They never told me about Perimeter,” says Yuliy Kvitsinsky, who led negotiations on the Soviet side at the time the system was created. And today no one will talk about it. In addition to Yarynich, several other people confirmed the existence of the system, but most questions on this matter still run into a sharp “no.” At an interview in Moscow in February of this year with Vladimir Dvorkin, another former Strategic Missile Forces official, I was escorted out of the room almost as soon as the topic was raised.
So why didn't the US report Perimeter? People experienced in the matter have long noted the extreme penchant of the Soviet military for secrecy, but this probably does not fully explain the silence.
It may be partly due to fears that the US will try to figure out how to shut down the system. But the main reason is much deeper. According to Yarynich, the perimeter was never intended only as a traditional doomsday machine. The USSR understood the rules of the game and went one step further than Kubrick, Szilard and everyone else: it built a system to hold itself back.
By ensuring that Moscow could retaliate, Perimeter was actually designed to deter Soviet military and civilian leaders from making a rash, hasty, and premature decision to launch. That is, give time to the hot heads to cool down. No matter what happened, there will still be an opportunity for revenge. The attackers will be punished."
"Perimeter" solved this problem. If Soviet radar picked up an alarming but ambiguous signal, the leaders could turn on the Perimeter and wait. If the alarm was false, Perimeter was turned off.
“That’s why we have a system,” says Yarynich. - To avoid a tragic mistake.
Since Yarynich describes “Perimeter” with pride, I ask him a question: What to do if the system fails? What to do if something goes wrong? A computer virus, an earthquake, deliberate actions to convince the system that a war has begun?
Yarynich sips his beer and dispels my doubts. Even with an unthinkable series of accidents, there will be at least one human hand to keep the Perimeter from destroying the world. Before 1985, he said, the Soviets had developed several automated systems that could launch a counterattack without any human intervention at all. But all these devices were rejected by the high command.
Yes, a person could decide, in the end, not to press the button. But this man was a soldier isolated in an underground bunker. And all around is evidence that the enemy has just destroyed his homeland and everyone he knows. The sensors have gone off, the timers are ticking. These are instructions, and soldiers are trained to follow instructions. Although…
“I can’t say whether I personally would press the button,” Yarynich himself admits.
Of course, it's hardly a button, really. Now this could be some kind of key or other safety switch. He's not entirely sure. After all, he says, Dead Hand is constantly being updated.
Nicholas Thompson
Based on materials from Wired.com
And just to finish off the most impenetrable reader, a legendary song on the topic, from a legendary band. We enjoy and think...
Take a look at these amazing photos and then try to do the same thing as this guy. Will you be able to...
Original taken from masterok in "The Perimeter Guaranteed Nuclear Retaliatory Strike System"
I raised an interesting question skytail :
"Tell me about it: Perimeter Guaranteed Nuclear Retaliatory Strike System" "
I heard something vague somehow, but then there was a reason to look into it in more detail.
"Our strategic nuclear forces (SNF) are configured in such a way as to threaten Russian nuclear and economic facilities. Even while we are negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin, we are keeping his Kremlin office at gunpoint. This is the truth of life" - Joseph Cirincione, director of the Nuclear Nonproliferation Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. December 2001.
Russia has the only weapon in the world that guarantees a retaliatory nuclear strike against the enemy, even in the terrible event that we no longer have anyone to decide on this strike. The unique system counterattacks automatically - and brutally.
Command missile 15A11 of the Perimeter system
Perimeter system (Strategic Missile Forces air defense index: 15E601)- a complex for automatic control of a massive retaliatory nuclear strike, created in the USSR at the height of the Cold War. Designed to guarantee the launch of silo-based ICBMs and SLBMs in the event that, as a result of a crushing nuclear strike by the enemy on the territory of the USSR, all command units of the Strategic Missile Forces capable of ordering a retaliatory strike are destroyed. The system is a backup communications system used in the event of the destruction of the Kazbek command system and the combat control systems of the Strategic Missile Forces, Navy and Air Force.
The system is the only doomsday machine (weapon of guaranteed retribution) in existence in the world, the existence of which has been officially confirmed. The system is still classified and may still be on combat duty to this day, so any information about it cannot be confirmed as unequivocally reliable, or refuted, and should be viewed with a due degree of skepticism.
In the mid-1970s, the development of a control system for strategic missile forces - the Strategic Missile Forces - began in Leningrad. In the documents it received the name "Perimeter". The system involved the creation of such technical means and software that would make it possible, in any conditions, even the most unfavorable, to convey the order to launch missiles directly to the launch teams. According to the creators of Perimeter, the system could prepare and launch missiles even if everyone died and there was no one to give the order. This component became unofficially called the “Dead Hand”.
When creating a new control system for the Strategic Missile Forces, two important questions had to be answered. Firstly: how to make soulless automation understand that its time has come? Secondly: how to give it the ability to turn on exactly at the moment when it is needed, not earlier and not later? Naturally, there were other issues - perhaps not so important individually, but global in the aggregate.
Creating a reliable system with such parameters is extremely difficult. However, the wizards from the Soviet military-industrial complex were able to come up with such a scheme for Armageddon that they themselves became afraid. But on the other hand, there was also pride among professionals who had done something that no one had ever been able to do before. But how?
Any missile, especially one equipped with a nuclear warhead, can take off only if there is a corresponding order. In peacetime, during firing exercises (with a dummy warhead instead of a real warhead), this happens as simply as usual. The launch command is transmitted through the command communication lines, after which all locks are removed, the engines are ignited, and the rocket is carried off into the distance. However, in a real combat situation, in the event of various kinds of interference, this would be much more difficult to do. As in the hypothetical scenario of a surprise nuclear strike that we presented at the beginning of the article, communication lines could be knocked out, and the people who had the authority to give the decisive order could be destroyed. But who knows what could happen in the chaos that would certainly arise after a nuclear strike?
The logic of the Dead Hand's actions involved the regular collection and processing of a gigantic amount of information. A variety of information was received from all kinds of sensors. For example, about the state of communication lines with a higher command post: there is a connection - there is no connection. About the radiation situation in the surrounding area: normal level of radiation - increased level of radiation. About the presence of people at the starting position: there are people - there are no people. About registered nuclear explosions and so on and so forth.
The “Dead Hand” had the ability to analyze changes in the military and political situation in the world - the system assessed commands received over a certain period of time, and on this basis could conclude that something was wrong in the world. In a word, it was a smart thing. When the system believed that its time had come, it became active and launched a command to prepare for the launch of the rockets.
Moreover, the “Dead Hand” could not begin active operations in peacetime. Even if there was no communication, even if the entire combat crew left the starting position, there were still a lot of other parameters that would block the operation of the system.
The Perimeter system with its main component, the Dead Hand, was put into service in 1983. The first information about it became known in the West only in the early 1990s, when some of the developers of this system moved there. On October 8, 1993, The New York Times published an article by its columnist Bruce Blair, “The Russian Doomsday Machine,” in which for the first time information about the control system of the Russian missile forces appeared in the open press. At the same time, its top-secret name, “Perimeter,” was announced for the first time, and a new concept, “dead hand,” entered the English language. Some in the West called the “Perimeter” system immoral, but at the same time even its most ardent critics were forced to admit that it is, in fact, the only deterrent that provides real guarantees that a potential enemy will refuse to launch a preventive nuclear strike.
mountain "Kosvinsky stone" silo UR-100N UTTH
It’s not for nothing that they say that fear rules the world. As for immorality, then... what is the “immorality” of retaliating? The Perimeter system is a backup command system for all branches of the military armed with nuclear warheads. It is designed to be particularly resistant to all damaging factors of nuclear weapons, and it is almost impossible to disable it. Its task is to make a decision on a retaliatory strike independently, without the participation (or with minimal participation) of a person. Only if the key nodes of the Kazbek command system (“nuclear suitcase”) and the communication lines of the Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) are destroyed by the first strike in accordance with the “highly moral” concepts of “Limited Nuclear War” and “Decapitation Strike” ", developed in the USA. In peacetime, the main components of the Perimeter system are in standby mode. They assess the situation by processing data coming from measuring posts.
In addition to the extreme operating algorithm described above, Perimeter also had intermediate modes. One of them is worth telling in more detail.
On November 13, 1984, the 15A11 command missile, created in Dnepropetrovsk, at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, was tested; all American reconnaissance assets worked in a very intense mode. The command rocket was the intermediate option mentioned above. It was planned to be used in the event that communication between the command and missile units scattered throughout the country was completely interrupted. It was then that the order was supposed to be given from the General Staff in the Moscow region or from the reserve command post in Leningrad to launch 15A11. The missile was supposed to launch from the Kapustin Yar test site or from a mobile launcher, fly over those areas of Belarus, Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan where the missile units were stationed, and give them the command to take off.
On a November day in 1984, this is exactly what happened: the command rocket issued a command to prepare and launch the R-36M (15A14) - which later became the legendary "Satan" - from Baikonur. Well, then everything happened as usual: “Satan” took off, rose into space, and a training warhead separated from it, which hit a training target at the Kura training ground in Kamchatka. (Detailed technical characteristics of the command rocket, if this issue is of particular interest to someone, can be found in books that have been published in abundance in Russian and English in recent years.)
In the early 70s, taking into account the real possibilities of highly effective methods of electronic suppression by a potential enemy of the Strategic Missile Forces' combat command and control systems, it became a very urgent task to ensure the delivery of combat orders from the highest echelons of command (the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces Directorate) to command posts and individual launchers of strategic missiles standing on combat duty in case of emergency.
The idea arose to use for these purposes, in addition to the existing communication channels, a special command missile equipped with a powerful radio transmitting device, launched at a special period and giving commands to launch all missiles on combat duty throughout the USSR.
The development of a special command missile system, called "Perimeter", was assigned to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau by USSR Government Decree N695-227 of August 30, 1974. It was initially planned to use the MR-UR100 (15A15) missile as the base missile; later they settled on the MR-UR100 UTTH (15A16) missile. The missile, modified in terms of its control system, received the index 15A11.
The cover of the compartment with maintenance-free equipment is impenetrable, what is there is not known for certain
In December 1975 The preliminary design of the command rocket was completed. The rocket was equipped with a special warhead, indexed 15B99, which included an original radio engineering system developed by OKB LPI. To ensure the conditions for its functioning, the warhead had to have a constant orientation in space during flight. A special system for its calming, orientation and stabilization was developed using cold compressed gas (taking into account the experience of developing the propulsion system for the Mayak SGCh), which significantly reduced the cost and time of its creation and testing. The production of SGCh 15B99 was organized at NPO Strela in Orenburg.
After ground testing of new technical solutions in 1979. LCT of the command rocket began. At NIIP-5, sites 176 and 181, two experimental mine launchers were put into operation. In addition, a special command post was created at site 71, equipped with newly developed unique combat control equipment to provide remote control and launch of a command missile according to orders coming from the highest echelons of the Strategic Missile Forces control. At a special technical position in the assembly building, a shielded anechoic chamber was built, equipped with equipment for autonomous testing of the radio transmitter.
Flight tests of the 15A11 missile (see layout diagram) were carried out under the leadership of the State Commission headed by Lieutenant General V.V. Korobushin, First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces.
The first launch of the 15A11 command rocket with an equivalent transmitter was successfully carried out on December 26, 1979. The developed complex algorithms for interfacing all systems involved in the launch were tested, the ability of the missile to ensure the given flight path of the MC 15B99 (trajectory apex at an altitude of about 4000 km, range 4500 km), the operation of all service systems of the MC in normal mode, and the correctness of the adopted technical solutions was confirmed.
10 missiles were allocated for flight testing. In connection with the successful launches and the accomplishment of the assigned tasks, the State Commission considered it possible to be satisfied with seven launches.
During the testing of the Perimeter system, real launches of 15A14, 15A16, 15A35 missiles were carried out from combat facilities according to orders transmitted by the SGCh 15B99 in flight. Previously, additional antennas were mounted on the launchers of these missiles and new receiving devices were installed. All launchers and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces subsequently underwent these modifications.
The 15P716 launcher is a silo-type, automated, highly protected, "OS" type. The key components of this system are the 15A11 command missile and receiving devices that ensure the reception of orders and codes from command missiles. The 15A11 command missile of the Perimeter system is the only widely known component of the complex. They have the index 15A11, developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau on the basis of the MR UR-100U missiles (index 15A16). Equipped with a special warhead (index 15B99), containing a radio engineering command system developed by OKB LPI. The technical operation of the missiles is identical to the operation of the base 15A16 missile. The launcher is silo-type, automated, highly protected, most likely OS type - a modernized OS-84 launcher. The possibility of basing missiles in other types of launch silos cannot be ruled out.
Along with flight tests, a ground test of the functionality of the entire complex was carried out under the influence of the damaging factors of a nuclear explosion at the test site of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, in the testing laboratories of VNIIEF (Sarov), and at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site. The tests carried out confirmed the operability of the control system and SGCh equipment at levels of exposure to a nuclear explosion exceeding those specified in the TTT MO.
Even during the flight tests, a government decree set the task of expanding the functions solved by the command missile complex, with the delivery of combat orders not only to Strategic Missile Forces facilities, but also to strategic missile submarines, long-range and naval missile-carrying aircraft at airfields and in the air, points control of the Strategic Missile Forces, Air Force and Navy.
The flight tests of the command missile were completed in March 1982. In January 1985, the complex was put on combat duty. For more than 10 years, the command missile complex has successfully fulfilled its important role in the defense capability of the state.
Many enterprises and organizations from various ministries and departments took part in the creation of the complex. The main ones are: NPO "Impulse" (V.I. Melnik), NPO AP (N.A. Pilyugin), KBSM (A.F. Utkin), TsKBTM (B.R. Aksyutin), MNIIRS (A.P. Bilenko), VNIIS (B.Ya. Osipov), Central Design Bureau "Geophysics" (G.F. Ignatiev), NII-4 MO (E.B. Volkov).
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION
There is no reliable information about the 15E601 “Perimeter” system, however, based on indirect evidence, it can be assumed that it is a complex expert system equipped with many communication systems and sensors. The system probably has the following operating principle.
The system is located on the database and receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars. The system has its own stationary and mobile combat control centers. In these centers, the main component of the Perimeter system operates - an autonomous control and command system - a complex software complex created on the basis of artificial intelligence, connected to a variety of communication systems and sensors that monitor the situation.
In peacetime, the main components of the system are in standby mode, monitoring the situation and processing data received from measuring posts.
In the event of a threat of a large-scale attack using nuclear weapons, confirmed by data from early warning systems about a missile attack, the Perimeter complex is automatically put on alert and begins to monitor the operational situation.
This is how the system is believed to work. “Perimeter” is on constant combat duty; it receives data from tracking systems, including early warning radars for missile attacks. Apparently, the system has its own independent command posts, which are in no way (outwardly) indistinguishable from many similar points of the Strategic Missile Forces. According to some reports, there are 4 such points, they are separated over a long distance and duplicate each other’s functions.
At these points, the most important - and most secret - component of the Perimeter, the autonomous control and command system, operates. It is believed that this is a complex software system created on the basis of artificial intelligence. By receiving data on communications on the air, the radiation field and other radiation at control points, information from early detection systems for launches, seismic activity, it is able to draw conclusions about the fact of a massive nuclear attack.
If “the situation is ripe,” the system itself is transferred to a state of full combat readiness. Now she needs one last factor: the absence of regular signals from the usual command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces. If signals have not been received for some time, “Perimeter” triggers the Apocalypse.
15A11 command missiles are released from the silos. Created on the basis of the MR UR-100 intercontinental missiles (launch weight 71 tons, flight range up to 11 thousand km, two stages, liquid-propellant jet engine), they carry a special warhead. In itself, it is harmless: it is a radio engineering system developed at the St. Petersburg Polytechnic. These missiles, rising high into the atmosphere and flying over the territory of the country, broadcast launch codes for all nuclear missile weapons.
They also act automatically. Imagine a submarine standing at the pier: almost the entire crew on the shore has already died, and only a few confused submariners on board. Suddenly she comes to life. Without any outside intervention, having received a launch signal from strictly secret receiving devices, the nuclear arsenal begins to move. The same thing happens in immobilized silo installations and in strategic aviation. A retaliatory strike is inevitable: it is probably unnecessary to add that the Perimeter is designed to be especially resistant to all damaging factors of nuclear weapons. It is almost impossible to reliably disable it.
antenna radio channel of the combat control system
The system tracks:
. the presence and intensity of negotiations on air on military frequencies,
. information from SPRN,
. receiving telemetry signals from Strategic Missile Forces posts,
. radiation level on the surface and in the surrounding area,
. regular occurrence of point sources of powerful ionizing and electromagnetic radiation at key coordinates, coinciding with sources of short-term seismic disturbances in the earth’s crust (which corresponds to the picture of multiple ground-based nuclear strikes),
. presence of living people at the control point.
Based on the correlation of these factors, the system probably makes the final decision about the fact of a massive nuclear attack and the need to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike.
Another proposed option for the system’s operation is that upon receiving information about the first signs of a missile attack from the early warning system, the top officials of the state could switch the system to combat mode. After this, if within a certain time the system’s control center does not receive a signal to stop the combat algorithm, then the procedure for delivering a retaliatory nuclear strike is initialized. This completely excluded the possibility of making a decision on a retaliatory strike in the event of a false alarm and ensured that even the destruction of everyone who has the authority to issue a command for launches would not be able to prevent a retaliatory nuclear strike.
If the sensor components of the system confirm with sufficient reliability the fact of a massive nuclear strike, and the system itself loses contact with the main command nodes of the Strategic Missile Forces for a certain time, the Perimeter system initiates the procedure for delivering a retaliatory nuclear strike, even bypassing the Kazbek system, better known for its the most noticeable element, the “Cheget” subscription kit, is like a “nuclear suitcase”.
After receiving an order from the Strategic Missile Forces VZU to a special command post, or at the command of the autonomous control and command system that is part of the Perimeter system, command missiles are launched (15A11, and subsequently 15Zh56 and 15Zh75). Command missiles are equipped with a radio command unit that transmits in flight a control signal and launch codes for launching to all carriers of strategic nuclear weapons located on the base.
To receive signals from the SSG of command missiles, all KP, PZKP, PKP RP and RDN, as well as APU, except for the Pioneer family complexes and 15P020 of all modifications, were equipped with special RBU receivers of the Perimeter system. At the stationary command centers of the Navy, Air Force, command posts of fleets and air armies, in the late 80s, equipment 15E646-10 of the Perimeter system was installed, incl. capable of receiving signals from command missiles. Further, orders for the use of nuclear weapons were communicated through their specific communications means of the Navy and Air Force. The receiving devices are hardware connected to the control and launch equipment, ensuring immediate autonomous execution of the launch order in a fully automatic mode, providing a guaranteed retaliatory strike against the enemy even in the event of the death of all personnel.
COMPOUND
The main elements of the Perimeter system:
- an autonomous command system, which is part of stationary and mobile combat control centers;
- command missile systems.
Divisions included in the Perimeter system:
URU GSh - control radio nodes of the General Staff of the aircraft, presumably:
URU General Staff of the Armed Forces:
624th PDRTs, military unit 44684.1 US General Staff of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, (56° 4"58.07"N 37° 5"20.68"E)
URU Strategic Missile Forces - control radio nodes of the General Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation, presumably:
URU General Staff Strategic Missile Forces
140th PDRTs, military unit 12407, PDRTs General Staff Strategic Missile Forces
143562, Moscow region, Istrinsky district, pos. Voskhod (Novopetrovskoye) (55° 56" 18.14"N 36° 27" 19.96"E)
Stationary CBU - stationary combat control center (CCU) of the Perimeter system, 1231 CBU, military unit 20003, facility 1335, Sverdlovsk region, village. Kytlym (Mount Kosvinsky stone);
Mobile TsBU - mobile combat control center (PTsBU) of the Perimeter system, complex 15V206:
1353 CBU, military unit 33220, Sumy region, Glukhov, 43rd rd (military unit 54196, Romny), 43rd RA (military unit 35564, Vinnitsa), 1990 - 1991. In 1991 redeployed to 59th rd, Kartaly.
1353 TsBU, military unit 32188, call sign “Perborshchik”, Kartaly, 1353 TsBU was part of the 59th rd, but due to its peculiarities and the nature of the tasks performed, it was directly subordinate to the General Staff of the Russian Federation, 1991 - 1995;
In 1995, 1353 TsBU was included in the 59th RD (military unit No. 68547, Kartaly), 31st RA (military unit 29452, Orenburg).
In 2005, 1353 TsBU was disbanded along with the 59th rd.
1193 CBU, military unit 49494, Nizhny Novgorod region, urban settlement Dalnee Konstantinovo-5 (Surovatikha), 2005 - ...;
15P011 - 15A11 command missile complex.
510th rp, BRK-6, military unit 52642, 7th rd (military unit 14245, Vypolzovo (Bologoe-4, ZATO “Ozerny”)) 27th RA (military unit 43176, Vladimir), January 1985 - June 1995;
There is also evidence that previously the Perimeter system, along with 15A11 missiles, included command missiles based on the Pioneer MRBM. Such a mobile complex with “pioneer” command missiles was called “Gorn”. The complex index is 15P656, the missiles are 15Zh56. It is known about at least one unit of the Strategic Missile Forces, which was armed with the Horn complex - the 249th Missile Regiment, stationed in the city of Polotsk, Vitebsk Region, 32nd Missile Division (Postavy), from March-April 1986 to 1988 was on combat duty with a mobile complex of command missiles.
15P175 “Sirena” is a mobile ground-based command missile system (PGRK KR).
In December 1990, in the 8th Missile Division (urban town of Yurya), a regiment (commander - Colonel S.I. Arzamastsev) with a modernized command missile system, called “Perimeter-RC”, which included a command missile, took up combat duty , created on the basis of the RT-2PM Topol ICBM.
Mobile ground-based command missile system (PGRK KR).
8th rd (military unit 44200, Yurya-2), 27th RA (military unit 43176, Vladimir), 10/01/2005 - ...
76th rp (military unit 49567, BSP-3):
1 and 2 GPP - 1st division
3 GPP and GBU - 2nd Division
304th rp (military unit 21649, BSP-31):
4 and 5 GPP - 1st division
6 GPP and GBU - 2nd Division
776th rp (military unit 68546, BSP-18):
7 and 8 GPP - 1st division
9 GPP and GBU - 2nd Division
After being put on combat duty, the 15E601 “Perimeter” system was periodically used during command post exercises.
In November 1984, after the launch of the 15A11 command rocket and the exit of the 15B99 command rocket to the passive part of the trajectory, the SGCH issued a command to launch the 15A14 rocket (R-36M, RS-20A, SS-18 “Satan”) from the NIIP-5 test site (Baikonur Cosmodrome) . Subsequently, everything happened as expected - launch, testing of all stages of the 15A14 rocket, separation of the training warhead, hitting the target square at the Kura training ground, in Kamchatka.
In December 1990, a modernized system was put into service, called “Perimeter-RC”, which operated until June 1995, when, as part of the START-1 agreement, the complex was removed from combat duty. It is quite possible that the Perimeter complex should be modernized so that it can quickly respond to an attack by non-nuclear Tomahawk cruise missiles.
According to unverified data, the system was already returned to combat duty in 2001 or 2003.
And some more evidence on this topic:
« The USSR developed a system that became known as the “Dead Hand”. What did this mean? If a nuclear attack was carried out on a country, and the Commander-in-Chief could not make any decision, among the intercontinental missiles that were at the disposal of the USSR, there were those that could be launched via a radio signal from the system commanding the battle“says Doctor of Engineering Sciences Petr Belov.
Using a complex system of sensors that measured seismic activity, air pressure, and radiation to determine whether the USSR was being attacked by a nuclear weapon, the Dead Hand provided the ability to launch a nuclear arsenal without anyone pressing the red button. If contact with the Kremlin were lost and the computers detected an attack, the launch codes would be activated, giving the USSR the opportunity to retaliate after its destruction.
« A system that can be automatically activated upon the first enemy strike is actually necessary. Its very presence makes it clear to enemies that even if our command centers and decision-making systems are destroyed, we will have the opportunity to launch an automated retaliatory strike"- said the former head of the Main Directorate of International Military Cooperation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, Colonel General Leonid Ivashov.During the Cold War, the United States had its own “backup option,” codenamed “Mirror.” Crews have been in the air continuously for three decades, with the mission to control the skies should control of the ground be lost due to a surprise attack. The main difference between the Dead Hand and the Mirror is that the Americans relied on people to warn them about the attack. After the Cold War, the United States abandoned this system, although it is still unclear whether a Soviet version exists. Those who know about this avoid talking about this topic. " I can't talk about this because I don't know about the current state of affairs", says Ivashov.
“Operation Looking Glass” (“Mirror”) - air command posts (ACCP) of the US Strategic Air Command (SAC) on Boeing EC-135C aircraft (11 units), and later, from July 1989, on E-6B " Mercury" (Boeing 707-320) (16 units). 24 hours a day, for more than 29 years, from February 3, 1961 to June 24, 1990, two Looking Glass aircraft were constantly in the air - one over the Atlantic, the other over the Pacific Ocean. In total, 281,000 hours were spent in the air. The crews of the All-Union Communist Party, consisting of 15 people, including at least one general, were in constant readiness to take command of strategic nuclear forces in the event of the defeat of ground command posts.
The main difference between Perimeter and Mirror is that the Americans relied on people to take command and make the decision to launch a nuclear retaliatory strike. After the end of the Cold War, the United States abandoned this system for carrying a combat vehicle and currently the VKP are on duty at 4 air bases in constant readiness for takeoff.
Also in the USA there was a complex of command missiles - UNF Emergency Rocket Communications System (ERCS). The system was first fielded on July 11, 1963, at launch sites at Wisner, West Point, and Tekamah, Nebraska, as part of three MER-6A Blue Scout Junior missiles. The system was on the database until December 1, 1967. Subsequently, the modernized ERCS was based on the Minuteman series missiles - LEM-70 (based on Minuteman I since 1966) and LEM-70A (based on Minuteman II since 1967) (Project 494L). The upgraded system was delivered to the database on October 10, 1967 at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, as part of ten silo launchers. The system was removed from the database at the beginning of 1991.
One of the most monstrous inventions of the Cold War was intended to completely destroy life on earth in global hara-kiri. It is possible that his timer is still ticking somewhere, counting down the last hours of our world.
However, whether it actually exists is unknown. And if it exists, then no one can say what the ominous Doomsday Machine .
Because this is the collective name for a certain weapon capable of wiping humanity off the face of the earth - and maybe even destroying the planet itself.
The authors of this name were science fiction writers, and it was first heard in the film by Stanley Kubrick "Doctor Strangelove" (1963). The idea itself goes back centuries, when those who lost battles preferred collective suicide to surrender. Preferably - together with enemies. That is why the last surviving defenders blew up the powder magazines of fortresses and ships.
But these were isolated cases of unprecedented heroism. It never occurred to anyone to blow up the whole world back then. Firstly, it is unlikely that anyone was so bloodthirsty or fell into such despair. Secondly, even if he wanted to, he would not have been able to drag the whole world with him to the grave - since he did not have the necessary weapons. All this appeared only in the 20th century.
The attitude of European countries towards their defeat in World War II varied greatly.
Denmark, for example, capitulated immediately after the Nazis entered its territory - and surrendered without resistance. Which, however, did not prevent her from later receiving the status of a participant in the “anti-Hitler coalition.” But Hungary was so loyal to Germany that it resisted us to the last - and all Hungarian men of military age went to the front.
Germany itself, since the end of 1944, was only making its legs, retreating in panic from the Red Army. A few months before the fall of Berlin, one and a half million enemy soldiers surrendered, and the Volksturm units fled.
Enraged by the reluctance of his people to fight to the death, Hitler ordered the Berlin subway to be flooded in order to drown the Germans hiding there along with the Soviet soldiers who broke through there. Thus, the locks of the Spree River became one of the prototypes of the Doomsday Machine.
And then nuclear weapons appeared. As long as the number of warheads numbered in the hundreds, and the means of their delivery were “antediluvian,” both the USA and the USSR believed that it was possible to win a nuclear war. You just need to strike first in time - or repel the enemy’s strike (shooting down planes and missiles), and “bang” in response.
But at the same time, the risk of being a victim of the first blow (and losing miserably) was so great that the idea of terrible retribution was born.
You may ask, weren’t the missiles fired in response such revenge? No.
Firstly, a surprise enemy strike will disable half of your nuclear arsenal. Secondly, it will partially reflect your retaliatory strike. And thirdly, nuclear warheads with a yield of 100 kilotons to 2 megatons are intended only for the destruction of military and industrial facilities. They cannot send America to the bottom of the ocean.
If a nuclear war had broken out in the early 60s, most of the US territory would have remained untouched, and on it, in a favorable scenario, the United States could have been revived. Deprived of their industrial areas, surrounded by radioactive deserts - but still revived. The Soviet Union would have survived in the same way. And other countries of the world could have survived the Third World War almost safely - and who knows, perhaps one of them would have pulled ahead and become a “world hegemon”.
The irreconcilable heads in Washington and Moscow could not agree with this. And they began to create weapons, after the use of which there were no winners, no vanquished, no passive observers in the Southern Hemisphere.
The Soviet Union was the first to do it - having tested on Novaya Zemlya a hydrogen bomb of monstrous power (over 50 megatons), known in the West as "Kuzka's mother" .
It was pointless as a weapon of war—too powerful and too heavy to be flown onto American soil. But it was ideally suited as that very powder magazine that would be blown up by the last surviving defenders of the Land of the Soviets.
Stanley Kubrick correctly understood Nikita Khrushchev's hint. And his Doomsday Machine was 50 nuclear (cobalt) bombs , planted like landmines in different parts of the planet. The explosion of which would make life on the planet impossible for a whole century.
In the novel "Swan's Song" writer Robert McCammon, super-powerful hydrogen bombs were located on special space platforms “Sky Claws”. They should have automatically, a few months after the defeat of the United States, dumped their cargo at the poles. Monstrous explosions would not only melt the ice caps, causing a new global flood, but would also shift the earth's axis.
As is known, the predictions of science fiction writers sometimes come true. And sometimes interesting ideas are borrowed from them. Rumors about Soviet thermonuclear landmines planted off the coast of the United States, as well as on the territory of the USSR itself (in case of occupation), have been circulating since the times of Perestroika. No one, of course, confirmed or denied them.
However, by the beginning of the 80s, the size of nuclear arsenals had reached such proportions that their use, even minus those destroyed, would lead to global radioactive contamination of the planet. Well, plus it would plunge her into the so-called for several years. "nuclear winter" So the Doomsday Machine might not be needed.
But instead of the question of how to destroy the planet, the question arose of how to do it? And here, in the mid-80s, according to weapons expert Bruce G. Blair and author of the book “Doomsday Men” P. D. Smith, the Soviet nuclear strike control system arose "Perimeter" . Representing something like "Skynet" from Cameron's famous film. Agree, it quite deserves the title of “machine of the apocalypse”!
However, the main part of the Soviet and now Russian defensive system, according to the above-mentioned authors, was the Kosvinsky Stone command center. According to their description, behind this name, in the depths of the Ural Mountains, lies a huge bunker with a special “nuclear button”.
It can only be pressed by one person, a certain officer, if he receives confirmation from the Perimeter system that a nuclear war has begun and Moscow has been destroyed and government bunkers have been destroyed. And then the question of retribution will be completely in his hands.
Surely, this is not an easy task - to be left alone when your entire country is destroyed, and in one motion send the rest of the world into tartarar. By the way, this situation is played out in the episode "Dead Man's Button" fantasy series "Beyond the possible".
It must be said that the concept of the Doomsday Machine brought considerable benefits. The threat of mutual destruction somewhat cooled the hotheads - and mainly thanks to it, the Third World War never began. For now
But even Skynet could not destroy all the people with nuclear weapons alone - and it had to finish off the survivors with the help of terminators. Therefore, in search "ultimate weapon" (the term was coined by the science fiction writer Robert Sheckley), theorists and practitioners delved into the jungle of the exact sciences.
In 1950, American physicist Leo Szilard put forward the idea cobalt bomb - a type of nuclear weapon that, when exploded, creates a huge amount of radioactive materials, turning the area into a super-Chernobyl. No one dared to create and test it - the fear of the consequences was too great. However, for a long time the cobalt bomb was predicted to play the role of an “absolute weapon.”
In the 60s there appeared neutron charges - in which 80% of the explosion energy is spent on emitting a powerful stream of neutrons. The consequences of the use of neutron charges are quite accurately described by the famous children's rhyme: the school is standing - but there is no one in it!
However, the possibilities of radiation seemed somewhat limited to some - compared, for example, with artificially created stamps of deadly bacteria and viruses.
“Modernized” pathogens of Ebola or Asian flu with almost 100% mortality seemed to them a more effective means of eliminating humanity.
So, for example, from Spanish flu virus More people died in 1918-19 than in the entire First World War. What if the terrible strain of African streptococcus, which rots a person alive within a few hours, was given the ability to become airborne?
What is being created and has already been created in the secret laboratories of the Pentagon has long been troubling ordinary people and provides rich food for the imagination of writers (read "Confrontation"
Stephen King). But even the most dangerous bacilli will seem like just a runny nose compared to what the so-called can do. "Grey Slime" . No, it has nothing to do with the all-consuming “biomass” from the Soviet science fiction film “Through Hardships to the Stars”, since it consists not of proteins and proteins, but of myriads of microscopic nanorobots .
Capable of self-reproduction (building copies of themselves) by processing any suitable raw material that comes their way. The idea of such nanorobots was proposed in 1986 by one of the founders of nanotechnology Eric Drexler . In his book “Machines of Creation,” he suggested an option when self-replicating nanorobots, for some reason, would be free and begin to use plants, animals, and people as raw materials for replication. “Tough, omnivorous “bacteria” could outcompete real bacteria: they could be spread by the wind like pollen, multiplying rapidly and turning the biosphere into dust in a matter of days. Dangerous replicators could easily be too strong, small and fast-spreading for us to stop.”
According to Dreckler's calculations, nanorobots will need less than two days to completely destroy the surface of the planet. It will be a real Apocalypse! Interestingly, long before Dreckler, Polish science fiction writer Stanislav Lem already described a similar scenario in the story "Invincible" - only there the nanorobots didn’t devour, but simply destroyed civilization on one of the planets.
Thus, tiny robots invisible to the naked eye claim to be the most ideal version of the Doomsday Machine. And, given that developments in the field of nanotechnology are being accelerated all over the world (in Russia, Putin himself declared them a priority in science), then science fiction may become reality in the very near future.
There is one consolation: the all-destructive Doomsday Machine restrains hotheads from taking drastic steps and, in fact, is the main guarantee of peace.
Post-apocalypse- a genre of fantastic literature that models the life of humanity. In some cases, the cause of general devastation is a nuclear war, in others - natural disasters, man-made ones, or even disaster from outer space. Over the past decade, the popularity of this genre has grown significantly; thousands of post-apocalyptic books have already been created. Some authors write within the framework of the postnuclear, while others write social and philosophical. It could even be an apocalyptic fantasy or entering a world after a nuclear war. From year to year, new works written in the post-apocalypse only prove how wide the scope of this direction is.
Features of books in the genre 2019
The post-apocalypse is characterized by people surviving in a post-nuclear world. There is a place for both action and reflections of the heroes, both bloodthirsty mutants and in protective suits, as well as interesting descriptions of the life and world order of society after a nuclear war. The best post-apocalyptic books of 2019 demonstrate purposeful heroes who are ready to fight for life no matter what. These can be both men and women, both cold-blooded fighters and formerly peaceful residents. Reading a post-apocalyptic story means feeling how survivors struggle for existence, building a new world on the ruins of a former civilization. The relevance of the genre does not fade: our world at any moment can become buried under the ashes of world wars. Post-apocalypticism not only gives you an idea of what will happen after the End of the World, but also opens up a whole palette of solutions on how to survive in a harsh world.
