December 17 - Strategic Missile Forces Day
17 December 2011, the country celebrates the 52 anniversary of the creation of a separate branch of the military - the Strategic Missile Forces. In the 1959 year, 10 years after the appearance of nuclear in our country weaponsThe top leadership came to the conclusion that it was necessary to create a special military structure that would control nuclear missiles and coordinate actions in the event of a possible retaliatory strike on the territory of a potential enemy. A few days later, namely 31 December 1959 of the year, by Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, Marshal Nedelin received the post of first Commander-in-Chief of the Rocket Forces as part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union.
Mitrofan Nedelin, until his appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Rocket Forces, served as deputy minister of defense of the Soviet Union for missile technology and special weapons. Therefore, the figure of Nedelin as the first Commander-in-Chief was predictable.
However, it should be noted that the formation of the rocket troops was by no means unclouded. Immediately after the announcement of the formation of a special kind of troops in the USSR, many military leaders attempted to express themselves in the spirit that the decision on the special position of the rocket men, to put it mildly, was not entirely correct. But after a few years - during the well-known events that are commonly called the Caribbean crisis - it became clear that giving rocket troops a special status was more than justified.
It must be said that by 17 December 1959, the Soviet Union had sufficient technical military equipment in terms of the operation of missiles. In service were eight types of rocket systems, among which the famous P-7 is a two-stage intercontinental ballistic missile (by the way, the first of its kind). Its first successful test occurred in August of 1957, and already in October of the same year, the P-7 successfully launched the first artificial satellite into the orbit.
In addition to the eight systems put into service for the rocket forces, four more complexes were in the stage of intensive development: РТ-2, Р-9, Р-16 and Р-14.
We note that even before the signing of the decree on the direct creation of the Strategic Missile Forces, 5 regiments were already on duty, equipped with the P-5М complex - the MRBD with a land-based type (missiles were adopted in June 1956). One of the military units equipped with Р-5М was located on the territory of the GDR, in a small forest area near Furstenberg. And in 1959, a special bunker was built for the missiles, which occupied an area of almost 3800 square meters. For the missiles, the High Command chose 4's main targets: the first target is the United Kingdom, the second target is the Ruhr industrial region of Germany, the third target is Paris, the fourth target is the Belgian capital of Brussels. However, missiles with nuclear warheads a few months later were taken from the GDR to the base near Kaliningrad. Such a redeployment, according to one version, is associated with a spy scandal, and according to another - with the revision of weapons due to imperfect launch systems (it took a long time to prepare the launch). The manufacturer of this type of missile was the 586 plant in Dnepropetrovsk.
In March 1960 of the year, the famous Dzerzhinsky Academy, which now bears the name of the military academy of the Strategic Missile Forces named after Peter the Great, joined the Strategic Missile Forces. This was also due to the fact that the country experienced an acute shortage of military experts in the field of missile weapons.
The sixtieth year was not only the year of entry into the Strategic Missile Forces of the Academy, building up the nuclear potential of the USSR, the creation of divisions equipped with the BRSD R-12, but also the tragic year of the sudden death of the first Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces.
Marshal Nedelin arrived at Baikonur in the last decade of October 1960, to take part in the tests of the new P-16 rocket. However, before the scheduled start-up time, one of the engines of the intercontinental ballistic missile was launched unauthorized. The launch resulted in the ignition of rocket fuel. The fire was so serious that 74 became its victims, and according to other data, 78 people, among whom was I.N. Nedelin. Among the causes of the accident was a gross violation of safety rules during the tests.
The command of the missile forces passed to Marshal KS Moskalenko, who continued to develop the training of personnel and take on board all new and new missile systems. By March 1961, separate missile corps were established as part of the Strategic Missile Forces of the USSR, located in Khabarovsk, Vladimir, Kirov and Omsk. Rocket corps included special brigades, which since the summer of the same year became known as divisions, having undergone a number of transformations.
All the main missile tests and the training of the personnel of the missile forces in the USSR were conducted on the territory of the Tyuratam state testing ground near Baikonur.
The military personnel of the strategic missile forces in 1962 showed real heroism and, thanks to the excellent operation carried out in Cuba, they created a truly bipolar world system that existed until the collapse of the Soviet Union.
New stage stories The Strategic Missile Forces begin with the 1992 year, when the USSR Strategic Missile Forces were transformed into the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation. Until 26 August 1992, the commander of the Strategic Nuclear Forces of the Commonwealth of Independent States was General of the Army Maximov, and then General I. D. Sergeev assumed the post of First Commander-in-Chief of the Strategic Missile Forces of Russia, who would later take the post of Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
In December, 1995, by decree of the President, the military personnel of the Strategic Missile Forces received their professional holiday - the Day of the Strategic Missile Forces and the Day of the Military Space Forces. In 1995, servicemen of the rocket men also learned that their patroness, St. Great Martyr Barbara, was declared, protecting (according to the information of the Russian Orthodox Church) a person from sudden death.
In 1997, the Strategic Missile Forces united directly the Rocket Forces, the Military Space Forces, and the Rocket and Space Defense Forces.
However, already in 2001 the Strategic Missile Forces were divided into Space Forces and the Strategic Missile Forces proper. Today, the Strategic Missile Forces include three armies (Vladimir, Omsk, Orenburg), command of troops in Vlasikha, interspecific range in the Astrakhan region, a test range (Republic of Kazakhstan), a station in Kamchatka, 4-th Research Institute in the city of Yubileiny, Peter the Great Academy in Moscow, military institutes in Rostov, Serpukhov and Stavropol, repair factories and military arsenals.
The number of Strategic Missile Forces is about 80 thousand people (directly military). At the end of last year, the Strategic Missile Forces had 1259 warheads, but after the recent reaction of President Medvedev to the continued deployment of European missile defense systems by the United States, the number of warheads could increase by a certain percentage. The ICBM RS-24, which can overcome missile defense systems of any type thanks to the innovative technology of separation of the head part, is adopted.
In addition, there is information that in a short time the Russian authorities may sign the decree on the re-establishment of the BZHK (combat railway complex) of the Strategic Missile Forces.
It is safe to say that from the very beginning of its creation, the Strategic Missile Forces have stood on the defense of the borders of our state. Without a doubt, it is precisely the power of the Strategic Missile Forces that makes it possible to judge the general military might of Russia. And this power, we hope, will only grow stronger. The military personnel of the strategic missile forces are faced with the challenge of keeping the borders of the Fatherland intact. We sincerely wish the rocket men with honor to continue to carry out the duties assigned to them, because more than one generation of our citizens have managed to evaluate their work.
Information