Russia to Give Up Rail-mobile Missiles, Focus on ICBMs

Russia will put the work on Barguzin rail-mobile ballistic missile system on hold and will instead focus on developing Sarmat and Rubezh Intercontinental Ballistic missiles (ICBM) due to lack of financing.

The work on the Barguzin rail-mobile ballistic missile system has been excluded from Russia’s new state armament plan for 2018-2027 due to lack of financing, a Russian defense ministry source was quoted as saying by TASS on Wednesday.

The development of the Barguzin project has been put on hold since the autumn of last year and pop-up tests of Yars missile from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north Russia were the last work carried out under this program, the sources said.

"The rail-mobile ICBM system will also be excluded from the new state armament program through 2027 over a shortage of financing: there are no sufficient funds to finance all missile programs for Russia’s Strategic Missile Force and Russia has sacrificed the Barguzin project for the time being for the sake of the Sarmat and the RS-26 Rubezh ICBMs included in the new state program," the source said.

As the Russian daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta reported earlier, the issue of developing new-generation missile-carrying trains has been closed at least for the near future.