The work on the Barguzin (NATO reporting name: SS-X-32Zh) rail-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) system has been excluded from Russia’s new state armament program for 2018-2027 due to lack of financing, a source in Russia’s defense industry told TASS.

(picture:Оружие России)

At the same time, a decision was made to focus on developing the Sarmat and Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missiles, the source added. As the Rossiyskaya Gazeta daily reported earlier, the issue of developing new-generation missile trains was closed at least for the near term. The source told TASS that the work on the Barguzin system had been suspended in the autumn of 2016 and the pop-up tests of the Yars (SS-27 Mod 2) missile from the Plesetsk spaceport in north Russia were the last work carried out in this regard. "The rail-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile system will not be included in the new state armament program through 2027 because of lack of financing. There are not enough funds to finance all missile programs for Russia’s Strategic Missile Force and, therefore, a decision was made to sacrifice the Barguzin system for some time for the sake of the Sarmat and the RS-26 Rubezh ICBMs that were included in the new state program," the source said.

In May 2016, another source in the defense industry told TASS that the design documentation for the Barguzin system had been developed and work to produce separate elements of the system had begun. It was planned at that time that a new 13th missile division comprising five regiments armed with the Barguzin rail-mobile ICBM system would be formed as part of the Russian Strategic Missile Force in the early 2020s. The development of the Barguzin rail-mobile ICBM system began in 2013. Each system was planned to comprise six launchers of Yars solid-propellant missiles with four independently targetable warheads. The Yars missile has a weight of 50 tons and a length of 22.5 meters, which allows it to fit into a 24-meter rail car designed to transport 60 tons of cargo. One such train corresponded to a regiment and there were plans to have five regiments integrated into one division.

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