The Chinese have successfully tested their first "train of death", a rail-based system capable of launching a ballistic missile. According to the Pentagon satellite network, the test would take place on 5 last December.
Developed by the 1982, according to what has been learned from recently declassified CIA documents, the Chinese rail system is based on the technology of the former Soviet rail-mobile.
The Chinese - add from the Pentagon - in the last twenty years they have developed a vast underground railway system, from which to move their own trains armed with nuclear warheads. If that train went into service, the United States could do absolutely nothing and would have the nuclear attack only after it was launched.
The information on the DF-41 is still very scarce. Beijing should have built a dozen on a mobile ramp (and another twelve in reserve).
Those who should equip the trains would be part of a new assembly line. The DF-41 should be able to carry up to ten maneuverable multi-reentry heads independent of 250 kilotons at fourteen thousand kilometers away (unconfirmed figure). If the rumors were confirmed, the DF-41 could storm the US with 120 / 240 nuclear warheads.
Beijing should possess, according to a latest estimate from the US defense, altogether about 300 nuclear warheads.
The trains of death in Moscow
During the Cold War, the USSR had in service twelve "ghost trains" called "Combat Railway Missile Complex" and equipped with three ballistic missile launchers.
For the first time since the 2005, the year in which the possible re-use of the deterrent system was feared, the Kremlin has started the production of the new "trains of death".
In the 1969 the Soviet Union, in response to the nuclear power of US submarines, deployed twelve perfectly disguised atomic trains throughout the territory and, in fact, canceled the American military satellite survey.
The concept of the "Nuke Train" is a specular terrestrial projection of the ballistic deterrent service performed by submarines: trains, however, are much less expensive. Since it was impossible to determine precisely where the missiles could have been launched from, the convoys (virtually impossible to identify) have been dubbed as "trains of death" or "ghost trains".
The "Barguzin" were removed from the service in the 1993. A nuclear train is practically impossible to detect: they use the same railcars as civil transport and the trains are identical to the refrigerated ones already in service.
The new Russian nuclear railway platform will have a devastating power. Each train will be armed with six RS-24 missiles, each capable of carrying four MIRV warheads (most likely MARV from the sixth train onwards). Each convoy can launch 24 thermonuclear warheads with independent multiple re-entry. This means that only one train may be able to target 24 cities.
The RS-24 'Yars' (code-named Nato SS-29) is a fifth generation intercontinental ballistic missile. It is an updated version of the 'Topol-M' ballistic missile and has been tested and officially presented in the 2007, in response to the installation of NATO's missile shield in Poland. The RS-24 is able to hit targets at a maximum distance of twelve thousand kilometers with an error of 50 meters. It is one of the fastest ICBMs in the world, with a final acceleration of over mach 20.
The new trains will be able to withstand the shock wave of a nuclear warhead and will be able to travel up to one thousand kilometers a day at 100 kilometers with a one-month autonomy. Moscow would have already put into production five "trains of death".
(photo: Asian Arms Control Project / Wikimedia)
