Perimetr 15E601

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union employed several systems for providing assured communications of nuclear weapons release authority. The Perimetr system was designed to communicate retaliatory launch orders. The related "Dead Hand" system was an automated system to determine whether Russia was under nuclear attack. Although these two systems operated in tandem, and are frequently blurred together in Russian writings, they were in fact discrete capabilities. That is, Perimetr could be used to disseminate launch orders from sources other than "Dead Hand", which in turn had communications channels in addition to Perimetr.

The General Staff monitors the status of the weapons of the nuclear triad and will send the direct command to the launch crews following the president’s decision to use nuclear weapons. The Russians send this command over multiple C2 systems, which creates a redundant dissemination process to guarantee that they can launch their nuclear weapons. Moscow also maintains the Perimetr system, which is designed to ensure that a retaliatory launch can be ordered when Russia is under nuclear attack.

The development of a system of guaranteed retaliation began in the midst of the Cold War when it became clear that electronic warfare systems, which were being constantly improved, would soon be able to block the regular channels controlling the strategic nuclear forces. A backup method of communication was needed that would guarantee the commands would make it to the launchers. It was then that the idea was conceived to use a missile equipped with a powerful radio transmitter as a communication link. While flying over the Soviet Union, the missile would send the launch command not only to command centers of the strategic missile force, but also directly to the launchers.

After the order received from the upper command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces to a special command post, a 15P011 command missile with a special 15B99 head is launched. The U.S.A. deployed a similar system, the Emergency Rocket Communications System [ERCS].

At the beginning of the 1970s, taking into account the real possibilities of highly effective methods of radio electronic suppression by a potential enemy of the SMF combat control equipment, it became very urgent to ensure that combat orders were issued from the highest levels of command (the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces) to command posts and individual strategic missile launchers , standing on alert, in case of emergency.

There was an idea to use for this purpose, in addition to the available communication channels, a special command missile equipped with a powerful radio transmitter, launched in a special period and submitting commands for the launch of all missiles on alert duty throughout the USSR.

The development of a special command missile system, known as the "Perimeter", was assigned to the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau by government decree No. 695-227 of August 30, 1974. As a basic missile, it was originally intended to use the MR-UR100 (15A15) missile, subsequently stopped on the MR-UR100 UTTK (15A16) missile. The missile developed in the part of the control system received the index 15A11.

In December 1975, A sketch of the command missile was executed. The rocket was equipped with a special head section, which had an index of 15B99, which included the original radio engineering system for the design of the OKB LPI. To ensure the conditions of its operation, the VF during the flight had to have a constant orientation in space. A special system for its calming, orientation and stabilization was developed with the use of cold compressed gas (given the experience of developing a remote control for the SHG "Mayak"), which significantly reduced the cost and timing of its creation and development. The production of the MIR 15B99 was organized by the NGO Strela in Orenburg.

After the groundwork of new technical solutions in 1979, LCI command rockets began. At NIIP-5, and sites 176 and 181, two experimental shaft silos were commissioned. In addition, a special command post was established at site 71, equipped with newly developed unique combat control equipment to provide remote control and launch of a command missile on orders coming from the upper levels of the Strategic Missile Forces. At a special technical position, a screened anechoic chamber was constructed in the body of the assembly, equipped with equipment for autonomous testing of the radio transmitter.

Flight tests of the rocket 15A11 were conducted under the guidance of the State Commission, headed by Lieutenant-General V. Korobushin, First Deputy Chief of the Main Staff of the Strategic Missile Forces.

The first launch of the command missile 15A11 with the equivalent of a transmitter was successfully carried out on December 26, 1979. The complex coupling algorithms of all the systems participating in the launch were tested, the possibility of providing the missile with a predetermined flight trajectory of the GS 15B99 (the vertex of the trajectory at an altitude of about 4,000 km, the range of 4500 km), the operation of all service systems in the regular mode, confirmed the correctness of the adopted technical solutions. A total of 10 missiles were assigned for flight testing. In connection with successful launches and fulfillment of the 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 from combat objects were carried out according to orders transferred to the SGB of 15B99 in flight. Previously, additional antennas were installed on the launchers of these missiles and new receiving devices were installed. All the PU and command posts of the Strategic Missile Forces subsequently underwent further development. Along with the flight tests, a ground check was performed on the working capacity of the whole complex under the impact of the damaging factors of the nuclear explosion at the training ground of the Kharkov Institute of Physics and Technology, in the testing laboratories of VNIIEF (Arzamas), at the Novaya Zemlya nuclear test site. The tests carried out confirmed the efficiency of the SS and MSS equipment at levels of impact of the nuclear explosion exceeding those specified in the TTT MO.

Even in the course of flight tests, the government decree set the task of expanding the functions to be performed by the command missile complex with the delivery of combat orders not only to the Strategic Missile Forces, but also strategic missile submarines, long-range and sea-launched missile aircraft at airfields and in air, control of the Strategic Missile Forces, the Air Force and the Navy.

LCI command rockets were completed in March 1982. In November 1984, the command missile was launched from Polotsk and gave a command to the silo launch facility of an RS-20 ICBM (SS-18 Satan) at Baikonur. The Satan was launched, and after each stage was tested, it was confirmed the warhead landed on the correct quadrant at the Kura test range on Kamchatka peninsula.

In January 1985, Perimeter was commissioned. Since then the system had been updated several times, with more modern ICBM missiles used as the command missile.

Many enterprises and organizations of various ministries and departments took part in the creation of the complex. The main of them are NPO Impulse (V.Melnik), NPO AP (n.A.Pilyugin), KBSM (AFUtkin), TsKBTM (BR.Aksyutin), MNIIRS (A.P. Bilenko), VNIIS (B.Ya. Osipov), Central Design Bureau "Geofizika" (GF Ignatiev), Research Institute-4 MO (EB Volkov).

In December 1990, in the 8th Missile Division (Village Yurya) on combat duty atonement Regiment (commander - Colonel SI Arzamastsev) with an upgraded command missile system, dubbed "Perimeter-RC", which includes a command missile, created on the basis of ICBM RT-2PM "Topol".

For more than 10 years, the command missile complex successfully fulfilled its important role in the defense of the state. As part of the START I agreement in June 1995, the command missile complex was withdrawn from combat duty. The command missile complex 15P011 with the 15A11 missile (based on the UR-100 MR) was on alert until June 1995, when the complex was withdrawn from combat duty as part of the START-1 agreement. According to other sources, this happened on September 1, 1995, when the 510th rocket regiment, armed with command missiles, was withdrawn from duty and disbanded in the 7th Missile Division (town of Vypolzovo). This event coincided in time with the completion of the withdrawal of the missile MR UR-100 from the combat missile of the Strategic Missile Forces and the re-equipment of the 7th rd, which began in December 1994, to the mobile ground-based missile system Topol.

There is also evidence that the earlier part of the "perimeter" of the system, along with missiles 15A11 missiles were team-based IRBM "Pioneer". Such a mobile complex with "Pioneer" command missiles was called "Horn". The index of the complex is 15P656, the rockets are 15J56. It is known, at least, about one unit of the Strategic Missile Forces, which was armed with the Horn complex - the 249th rocket regiment stationed in the town of Polotsk, Vitebsk region, the 32nd missile division (Postavy), from March to April 1986 to 1988 stood on alert with a mobile complex of command missiles.

When in December 2011, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces Sergei Karakaev visited the KP, he was asked about it. He replied: "Perimeter" exists. The system is on alert duty. If there is a need for a retaliatory strike, when it is impossible to bring a signal to the part of the launchers, this command can come from these missiles from the Perimeter ..."