Exhibit description

Combat railway missile system «Molodets» 15P961

Rocket Train

The combat railway missile system was created in the USSR in the early 1980s. In 1982, a single-section diesel locomotive based on the M62 was created specifically for operation as part of the missile system at the Voroshilovgrad plant. It received the factory designation DM62, but on the locomotives themselves, the letter "D" was not put on the license plate.

The unique missile system and the 15ZH61 intercontinental ballistic missile were developed by Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, the General designer of the project is V. F. Tolstoy.Utkin. The train and launcher were designed by the Leningrad Special Machine Building Design Bureau. The entire service life of the rocket was in a sealed transport and launch container.

Technical parameters

The maximum firing range is 10,400 km, the starting mass is 104.5 t, the missile length in the container is 22.4 m, the maximum diameter of the hull is 2.4 m, the mass of the payload 4 t. The split warhead has ten individual targeting warheads. The rocket's warranty period is ten years.

The combat railway missile system consists of three DM62 diesel locomotives, a command post consisting of seven wagons, a tank car with fuel and lubricants reserves,and three rocket launchers.

Diesel locomotive DM62-1731 was built at the Voroshilovgrad diesel Locomotive Plant . October Revolution in 1983 The locomotive's serial number is 4891.

The combat railway missile system looks like an ordinary train consisting of refrigerated, mail-luggage and passenger cars. Eight cars have eight wheelsets each, and three have four wheelsets each. Three of the cars are disguised as a passenger fleet, and thanks to the available supplies on board, the complex could operate independently for up to 28 days. The launch vehicle is equipped with an opening roof.

Historical context

The combat railway missile system (BZhRK) is a mobile missile system armed with the RT-23UTTH Molodets intercontinental ballistic missile (RS-22, 15Zh61, NATO classification - SS-24 "SCALPEL"). All the main combat and technical means in the system, which provide an autonomous launch of the missile, are located in railway cars.

Each regiment had a clearly developed route and movement schedule. And when on combat duty, the BZhRK moved in accordance with them along the public railway network of the USSR Ministry of Railways. In a day, the complex could move a distance of up to 1,500 km.

The BZhRK included three launch modules that directly carried out the launch and consisted of three cars each, a regiment command post and various support cars. Externally, all of them, including a 125-ton tank with a supply of diesel fuel, were disguised as refrigerated and passenger cars.