According to a recent report by the Russian newspaper Izvestia, the Russian military has decided to completely phase out the "Poplar" intercontinental strategic missile in 2024 and replace it with a new generation of "Yars" (Poplar M) intercontinental ballistic missile. However, there is explosive news lurking in a corner, that is, the "Salmatt" intercontinental ballistic missile that Russia has been developing has entered the test firing stage.
So what is the mystery of Russia's intercontinental strategic missile equipment, and listen to the author to break it down one by one.
1. Poplar
The emergence of the "Poplar" intercontinental strategic missile can be said to be revolutionary, which is the world's first strategic missile that can be deployed on the road. This means that with the United States having the superior strike force, Russia has the capital to fight back anytime and anywhere. The range of this missile reaches 10,000 kilometers, what is the concept of this distance? Russia is only 5,000 kilometers off the east coast of the United States. The Class 3 solid-fuel structure ensures the continuity of the voyage, enabling a 550,000-ton nuclear warhead to be delivered to its destination as planned.
Many people actually have no concept of the "equivalent" of nuclear warheads, as long as they know that the "little boy" that came to Hiroshima has a yield of only 15,000 tons.
"Poplar" is expected to be eliminated after 3 years for a reason, such as only one nuclear warhead, as the architecture of the US anti-missile system matures, after testing, the United States has the ability to effectively intercept the "Poplar" in the boost stage with an average of two or three defensive missiles. As the world's first intercontinental missile capable of being launched on a road, its carrier is a very important platform. But the designers of the carriers worked hard to complete the launch of icing missiles at minimal cost.
However, just like the refrigerator off the elephant, the carrier vehicle is also divided into "three steps", which are transportation, missile erection, missile launch, which step requires the vehicle load, power and power are different. Therefore, engineers who strive for perfection provide three different systems for each of the three stages, resulting in too many accessories for the vehicle, excessive weight, and overturning accidents becoming commonplace.
In 1994 alone, the Poplar carrier overturned more than 10 times on the road, several of which carried intercontinental missiles. Multiple accidents forced the Russian military to explicitly limit the speed of the Poplar carrier.
Since the biggest advantage of the road launch method is concealment and flexibility, the corresponding disadvantage is that it requires huge logistics to maintain this "strategic missile guerrilla", such as fuel, diet, bunkers, and even armored vehicles to protect safety.
It has been calculated that a "Poplar" launcher includes the number of people involved in logistics, which is 5 to 6 times more combatants than a single silo! The cost of the required is high, the daily operation is accompanied by high risk, and the missiles launched can be almost 100% intercepted, so the layoff of "Poplar" has become inevitable.
However, these decommissioned national heavy weapons are not completely useless, according to the authoritative information of Russian defense, some of the decommissioned "Poplar" missiles will become civilian launch vehicles to support Russia's aerospace industry.
Second, poplar m
In view of the fact that a single warhead of the "Poplar" is easily intercepted by the opponent's anti-missile system, Russia decided to design a new intercontinental ballistic missile equipped with multiple warheads, each attack can hit at least 3 military or economic targets at the same time, and can effectively complete the attack under the anti-missile system configured by the enemy ladder.
Thus, the "Yars" also known as the "Poplar M" ballistic missile appeared. The "Poplar M" not only upgraded the truck; but also replaced the engine to make the missile fly faster. At the same time, a variety of guidance methods have been added to control the hit accuracy of the missile within 200 meters.
Some experts estimate that the Americans can intercept the "poplar" with 2 or 3 missiles, but it will take at least 50 or more missiles to face the "poplar". Although the deterrent power of "Poplar M" is very strong, the production capacity is very low. This is related to the Russian economy, which recovered vigorously around 2010 and increased military spending year by year.
In the construction of nuclear forces, sea-based nuclear forces with the "God of the North Wind" strategic nuclear submarine as the main body have become key support projects, and air-based and land-based can only move slowly. In recent years, Russia's economy has again malaimed, military spending has been slashed, and land-based nuclear forces, which were not taken care of when they had money, are now even more short of money. At present, the plan to replace the "Poplar M" with the "Poplar" ballistic missile has been completed by 85%.
All mobile Yars ICBMs are protected by the newly equipped Perevester laser warfare system, which greatly improves the survivability of the missile system. Since the United States is still modernizing its anti-missile system, a contest between "spear" and "shield" seems to be endless.
III. Satan 2
NATO has the habit of equipping the Russian system with nicknames, and they are all malicious nicknames, so that others have a feeling of dislike when they listen. But dislike does not mean fear, NATO certainly does not want to help Russia increase military deterrence.
However, for the equipment to be said below, NATO is inevitably afraid and has given the title of "Satan". "Satan" means "devil" in the West, and the fact that the United States can give such a notoriety to this equipment also fully demonstrates the deterrent power of this equipment. The original Satan was a multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile developed during the Soviet era and launched through a vertical silo. Due to its large size, it made it difficult to place and maintain the silo, so it was not equipped on a large scale.
In 2011, the Russian military determined to be equipped with a new type of liquid heavy intercontinental ballistic missile, smaller in size, but more effective in breaking through the existing US anti-missile defense system, NATO is difficult to use precise words to describe the shock brought by this new equipment, had to restart the name of "Satan", the new missile is also known as the "Satan 2" missile.
Compared with traditional solid rocket engines, liquid rocket engines have a larger unit thrust, and the range and load of missiles have been significantly improved. Satan 2 nominally carries 10 sub-missile heads, but as many as 40 decoy bombs. That is to say, in the eyes of the defense system, this is 50 missiles thrown at the same time, so the difficulty of defense can be imagined.
4. Finally, finally
The alternation of "poplar" and "poplar m" represents the end of one era, the beginning of another. Despite the economic difficulties, the Russian government is still struggling to maintain the upgrading of the great power's heavy equipment.