MOSCOW. Dec 6 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia is capable of resuming the work on the "nuclear train" project on short notice, Frants Klintsevich, the first deputy head of the Federation Council Defense and Security Committee, told Interfax on Wednesday.
"I believe the project can be resumed and be operational any second. There are no problems with that," he said.
On December 2, the newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta said on its website that Russia has ceased developing Barguzin rail-based missile systems.
"The topic is closed, at least in the short term. The design and experimental work on the Barguzin has been conducted. An experiment with a pop-up launch was successful. If there is an urgent need, our missile train will be on the tracks promptly. But for now, let's forget about it," the newspaper said, citing an informed source in the defense industry.
"I don't have information that the work on the project has been ceased. The project may be frozen. But in any case, we have documents, all the source data to resume this project in light of the new capabilities of science and technology," Klintsevich said.
"We need rail-based missile systems. This is one of the most serious elements of deterrence. The existence of such a system is seriously balancing. It's impossible to determine where it is located. The Americans are unable to monitor it," he said.
Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yury Borisov told Interfax last September that Russia would implement a rail-based missile system if "the military and political situation" so requires.
"All technical solutions have been elaborated, and we don't see any difficulties, neither engineering nor technical ones, in creating such a system. And we will implement it if necessary, if the military and political situation requires it," Borisov said.
In May, the newspaper Kommersant said that military officials would finalize the Barguzin's design by 2019.
The Commander of the Strategic Missile Troops, Col. Gen. Sergei Karakayev, told reporters earlier that a new rail-based missile system was being developed in Russia. It was reported that the new Barguzin system was being created on a new technological level and being designed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering.
The state-of-the-art system would incorporate the experience gained in the construction and operation of its predecessor, the rail-based missile system armed with the Molodets missile (RT-23 UTTKh; NATO reporting name: SS-24 Scalpel).
The Soviet Strategic Missile Forces had three divisions armed with the Molodets rail-based missile systems, which were stationed in the Kostroma region and the Perm and Krasnoyarsk territories, totaling 12 "nuclear trains," each carrying three missiles. Every missile had ten warheads. The systems were scrapped between 2003 and 2005.
One of its reasons for this is that the designer of the RT-23 Molodets, the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau, is located in Ukraine. The New START Treaty does not ban the development of new missile systems.