Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Project: The Last US Rocket Train
Theory and practice
The Mobile Minuteman project was primarily closed due to the high cost and complexity of the BZHRK construction. Nevertheless, some features of such systems still attracted the military. The main advantage of railway complexes was considered to be high mobility. Using the existing railway networks of the United States, "rocket trains" could disperse throughout the country and thus get out of the possible strike of missiles of a potential enemy.
In the eighties, American experts calculated the approximate survivability of BZHRK in a nuclear war with the Soviet Union. 25 trains with intercontinental missiles, dispersed on the railway networks with a total length of about 120 thousand kilometers, would have been an extremely difficult goal for the enemy. Due to problems with the detection and destruction of a nuclear missile strike using 150 missiles, the P-36M was supposed to disable only 10% of the “rocket train” fleet. Thus, as stated, the promising BZHRK turned out to be one of the most survivable components of strategic nuclear forces.
Naturally, the project should have a number of problems. The new BZHRK, like the Mobile Minuteman, was supposed to become quite expensive and difficult from a technical point of view. During the development it was necessary to solve a number of specific problems associated with both the rocket used and various ground-based weapons. However, the US military again wished to receive a rail-based missile.
According to some information, one of the prerequisites for the creation of a new project BZHRK was intelligence information received from the USSR. Since the early seventies, Soviet specialists have developed their own version of the "rocket train", which is why the Pentagon wanted to get a similar system with similar characteristics, designed to ensure parity.
Peacekeeper Rail Garrison Project
In December, 1986, it was announced the start of work on a new project to create a combat railroad missile complex. As in the case of the previous similar project, it was decided not to create a new rocket for the complex, but to use the existing one. At that time, the USAF mastered the new LGM-118A Peacekeeper rocket, which they proposed to use as weapons for the new "rocket train". In this regard, the new project was named Peacekeeper Rail Garrison ("Peacekeeper rail-based"). A number of leading US defense companies were involved in the project: Boeing, Rockwell and the Westinghouse Marine Division.
It should be noted that at the early stages of the project, some alternatives to the “classical” BZHRK were considered. So, it was proposed to make a mobile missile system on the basis of a special chassis, which could ply on highways or go off-road. In addition, the possibility of building protected shelters across the country, between which the “rocket trains” were supposed to run, was considered. As a result, it was decided to make a train with special equipment disguised as civilian freight trains. BZHRK Peacekeeper Rail Garrison had to ply on railways and literally get lost among commercial trains.
The necessary composition of the complex was determined rather quickly. In the head of the “rocket train” there should have been two locomotives of the required power. The published figures in this capacity are the GP40-2 diesel locomotives of General Motors EMD. Each complex was supposed to carry two missiles in special cars. In addition, it was proposed to include two crew cars, a control car and a fuel tank. Such a set of elements of the complex made it possible not only to carry out the assigned combat missions and launch rockets, but also to be on the voyage for quite a long time.
The selected LGM-118A rocket did not differ in small dimensions and weight, having a length of about 22 m and a starting weight of the order of 88,5 t. Such weapon parameters led to the need to create a special car-launcher having a special design and relevant characteristics. It was necessary to ensure the possibility of transporting the rocket in the transport and launch container, as well as raising the container to a vertical position and launching the rocket. At the same time, the car had to have acceptable indicators of the load on the track and not have serious unmasking differences from other vehicles. The development of the car was carried out by specialists from the Westinghouse and St Louis Refrigerator Car Company companies.
Because of the weight and size of the rocket, the launcher wagon turned out to be rather large and heavy. Its weight reached 250 m, the total length was 26,5 m. The width of the car was limited by the permissible size and was 3,15 m, height - 4,8 m. Externally, this element of the complex was planned to make it look like standard covered freight cars. To ensure an acceptable load on the road in the design of the car-launcher had to use four trucks with two wheel pairs on each. Despite all the efforts, the launcher of the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison complex had noticeable differences from the coaches that existed at that time. The carriage with the rocket was larger and had a different chassis that distinguished it from the standard cargo "brothers".
Inside the car-launcher it was proposed to place the rocket transport and launch container with hydraulic jacks, as well as a set of special equipment. In preparation for the launch, the equipment of the car had to open the roof, lift the container to a vertical position and perform other operations. The rocket had to be pushed out of the container with the help of the so-called. powder pressure accumulator (mortar start), and the first stage sustainer had to be turned on already in the air. Because of this method of launching, special supports were provided in the car’s structure, located on the bottom and designed to transmit a recoil impulse to the rails.
The BZHRK Peacekeeper Rail Garrison crew was to consist of an 42 man. Locomotive control was assigned to the driver and four engineers, four officers were to be responsible for launching the missiles. In addition, it was planned to include a doctor, six technicians and guards from 26 people in the crew. It was assumed that such a crew would be able to keep a watch for one month, after which it will be replaced by other military personnel.
The ammunition of the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison complex was to consist of two LGM-118A Peacekeeper missiles. Such weapons made it possible to attack targets at a distance of up to 14 thousand kilometers and deliver enemy units with an 10 or 300 power unit capacity to enemy targets up to 475. Thus, the planned construction of 25 “rocket trains” made it possible to keep on duty up to fifty intercontinental missiles ready for immediate use.
Some sources mention that the composition of the “rocket train” could change according to the situation. First of all, it concerns the number of cars with missiles and other elements of the complex, directly related to the performance of combat missions.
Testing in practice
The construction of an experienced Peacekeeper Rail Garrison began with the refinement of locomotives. Two GP40-2 and GP38-2 locomotives were taken for use in tests. To protect the crew, diesel locomotives received armored glass as well as larger capacity fuel tanks. St Louis Refrigerator Car Company built and transferred to Westinghouse two special cars in which it was planned to place the launcher units.
At the very end of the eighties, when the project of a promising BZHRK reached the construction of experimental equipment, the US military began to make plans for the further purchase of serial equipment and the deployment of new units. The Peacekeeper railway-based complex was supposed to be put on duty until the end of 1992. Already in the 1991 fiscal year, it was planned to allocate 2,16 billion dollars for the construction of the first seven serial "rocket trains".
It was proposed to build the built trains between the 10 air force bases, where they were supposed to stay until the corresponding order was received. In the event of a worsening of relations with the likely adversary and an increase in the risks of the outbreak of war, the trains had to go to the railroad networks of the United States and ply them before receiving an order for launch or return. The main base BZHRK Peacekeeper Rail Garrison was to be the object of Warren (Wyoming).
The construction of the car-launcher was completed in the autumn of the year 1990. In early October, he was taken to Vandenberg Air Base (California), where the first equipment inspections took place. After completing all the work at the air base, the car was sent to the Railway Testing Center (Pueblo, PCs, Colorado). On the basis of this organization, it was planned to conduct running and other tests of new equipment, as well as to check it on public railways.
The details of the tests at the Vanderberg base and at the Railway Research Center are unfortunately not available. Probably, the specialists were able to identify the existing shortcomings and pass on the information about them to the project developers so that they could correct the shortcomings. Trials continued until 1991.
In the early nineties, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the leadership of the Pentagon began to revise its views on the development of the armed forces in general and the nuclear triad in particular. In the updated plans there was no place for combat railway missile systems. In the new conditions, such a technique seemed too complicated, expensive and almost useless due to the absence, as it seemed then, of threats from a potential enemy in the person of the USSR. For this reason, the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison project was stopped.
The prototype of the car-launcher used in the tests, for some time was at one of the bases of the US Air Force. His fate was decided only in 1994 year. Due to the lack of prospects and the impossibility of continuing work on the project, the experienced car was transferred to the National Museum of the United States Air Force (Wright-Patterson base, pieces of Ohio), where it is still located. Anyone can now see the result of the last American project BZHRK.
On the materials of the sites:
http://fas.org/
http://nationalmuseum.af.mil/
http://trainwatchersjournal.blogspot.ru/
http://designation-systems.net/
http://militaryparitet.com/
Information