Will Russia have enough “Caliber” for a special operation in Ukraine ?

Col. Viktor Baranets
KP

Will Russia have enough "Caliber" (Kalbr) for a special operation in Ukraine
Is it true that Moscow is running out of high-precision cruise missiles and soon it will "have nothing to fight with"?

So "Caliber" goes into the sky from the side of the patrol ship "Tatarstan". But these cruise missiles can be hit both from the ground and from an aircraft? Nonsense. Photo: Dmitry ROGULIN/TASS

These and other 12 "naive" questions are answered by the military observer of "KP" Colonel Viktor Baranets

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The Caliber cruise missile has already become a real hit and a meme.

To "calibrate" the enemy is almost the most fashionable expression now in the troops. And the fact that this super-precise weapon is capable of reaching any military facility anywhere in the same Ukraine made Caliber one of the main strike forces of the entire ongoing special operation.

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What is there to say! At the "Caliber" in the Russian headquarters and among military analysts, they literally pray.

And therefore it becomes uncomfortable when, with reference to Western military intelligence, you read that "Russia's stocks of Caliber are depleted" and they "left for a couple of weeks." And then "there will be nothing to fight."

How about it, really? How long will we have enough "Calibers"? Who even came up with this miracle weapon? And do we have something else in stock besides it?

1. Missiles vanished for a month and then there will be nothing to fight with?

Recently, indeed, Western and Ukrainian media have been actively throwing in (with reference to their intelligence) “reliable data” that Moscow, due to active fighting in Ukraine, is running out of not only Calibers, but also other modern high-precision missiles. Therefore, they say, the Russian command is already “scraping the bottom of the barrel”, collecting everything that is left in the warehouses.

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Here's an example for you. As early as March 21, the “knowledgeable” American television channel CNN reported that, according to the Pentagon, Russia would run out of Caliber by March 24, when 1,200 of them would have been produced.

So what?

The operation has been going on for the third month, and the "Caliber" does not stop!

The fact is that Russia has been producing these missiles (and is producing) for a long time not only on the basis of one local military operation (as in Syria or Ukraine). The Russian General Staff, of course, keeps in mind the huge combat potential of the entire NATO bloc. And, of course, in the production of missiles (including Caliber), this factor is taken into account.

To have enough for everyone.

The West does not know exactly how many Calibers Russia has. Although its estimates in recent days are beginning to change. Now it is claimed that Russia "has enough" Caliber ", which" will be enough for a long time "...

2. How do the factories producing these weapons work now?

The answer to this question is "closed". In other words, it's a state secret.  Читайте на WWW.KP.RU: https://www.kp.ru/daily/27392/4587924/

Foreign intelligence agencies in Russia are actively hunting for the answer.

Why?

To understand how long the military machine of Ukraine will be able to hold out and how the NATO command should plan its actions in this country during our attacks.

Unfortunately, some citizens do not know how to keep their mouths shut.

It has already flashed on social networks that some of our military-industrial enterprises that produce cruise and other missiles have allegedly switched to a three-shift mode of operation, and at one of these factories, they suddenly announced 500 vacancies at once ... Although I also heard from our defense workers: "Work is in full swing! We bake like pies…"

3. How much does one Caliber cost? And is it cheaper or more expensive than NATO missiles?

Caliber's main competitor is the American Tomahawk Block IV cruise missile. According to the Pentagon, its price is from $1.5 to $1.7 million (depending on the modification).  Approximately the same price as other US cruise missiles - "Harpoon", "Jazm", "Maverick", LRASM.

Our "Caliber" (3M14) in mass production costs much less. Sometimes a price of $500 thousand apiece is called. But this is the cost of the export version of the rocket. The Russian army "Caliber" costs one and a half times cheaper - $ 300 - 350 thousand.

4. What are the grades of foreign experts?

In the American military-analytical magazine The National Interest, we read the opinion of local experts: “Caliber missiles have qualities that worry Western countries. First, these missiles fly low, almost skimming over the surface of the water or land, and avoid detection by the enemy. Secondly, "Caliber" is universal, they can be equipped with even the smallest warships, such as corvettes. US intelligence knows the characteristics of the Caliber. They are able (from the Black and Caspian Seas) to close the radius from France to Kazakhstan.

The range of "Caliber" - 2500 kilometers. They were first used against militants in Syria on October 7, 2015 ( see kp.ru website ). Then the missile ship "Dagestan" and small missile ships "Grad Sviyazhsk", "Veliky Ustyug" and "Uglich" fired 26 cruise missiles from the Caspian Sea. And they all achieved their goal flawlessly.”

5. And if you compare with the American "Tomahawks"?

It's easy to compare. Of the 59 Tomahawks launched by the Americans from the Mediterranean Sea, only 23 reached their targets in Syria.

They, in fact, did not complete the task of completely disabling Syrian airfields, hitting minor targets. Ammunition depots, taxiways and combat-ready aircraft of the Syrian Air Force remained intact ...

As a result, the millions of dollars invested by the United States in this strike were literally thrown into the wind.

It is worth remembering the operation "Desert Storm". American generals boasted there more than once of the "high efficiency of the Tomahawks."

However, after the publication in the New York Times and the Washington Post of the report of the US Department of Defense on the results of the Gulf War, this bragging subsided. The report stated that out of 288 missiles fired from US ships and submarines, less than 50% hit their targets.

TTX Caliber and Tomahawk. [Alexey STEFANOV]

And what do American specialists write about the effectiveness of our "Caliber"? In the same military-analytical magazine The National Interest we read: “Our space intelligence monitors the launches of Russian missiles. It is amazing that they are capable of overtaking even moving targets for two thousand kilometers, not to mention stationary ones. It seems that the Russians have perfected the aiming of such weapons at the target. There was not a single case when the "Caliber" hit an empty place. There were only a few episodes when the deviation from the target was more than 10 meters. But for the powerful warhead of this missile (400 kg. - Ed.) this is a mere trifle. The target was hit by the blast."

6. What else do we use similar to Caliber in Ukraine?

Here we have a whole brood of relatives of "Caliber" - cruise missiles "Malachite", "Mosquito", "Onyx", X-55, X-101. The latter, by the way, has an incredible range - it can be guaranteed to hit targets at 4500 km (2800 miles).

Of the other weapons involved in the special operation, it is worth mentioning the Dagger hypersonic complex first of all.

The first combat use of the "Dagger" (Kinzhal) occurred on March 18, when it was sent as a precision hit in the west of Ukraine to a super-protected enemy ammunition depot (in a missile silo built back by the Soviet Union and designed to withstand a nuclear strike). "Dagger" reduced this deep reinforced concrete shelter to fine rubble.

We also have the Iskander high-precision missile system. It is also capable of "falling through the window" hundreds of kilometers away.

Involved in the operation in Ukraine and "Bastion" - a coastal complex with a missile "Onyx" ("Yakhont").

7. Are Western intelligence agencies hunting for caliber secrets?

Judging by the testimonies of foreign intelligence agents arrested in Russia (among whom, alas, there were recruited Russians), they were most interested in the secrets of the Caliber guidance systems. And also - the possibility of jamming signals coming from our GLONASS system and drones.

8. Who created this miracle and what reward did he receive?

Back in 1983, the Novator Design Bureau (Sverdlovsk) began the creation of a new anti-ship cruise missile (the Turquoise project). This rocket was first shown in 1993. And it was on this basis that the 3M54 rocket was later created, which became the basis for the Caliber complex.

Many scientists, designers, engineers, technologists are involved in its creation. But there were “intelligent motors” among them - this is the general director, general designer of Novator Pavel Kamenev. He is deservedly - Hero of Labor of Russia and twice laureate of the State Prize.

Among the creators of "Caliber" (or rather, the rocket engine) and the former director of the plant "Saturn" (Rybinsk) Yuri Lastochkin. According to him, Vladimir Putin is also involved in the fate of Caliber.

Here's how he talked about it:

“The work was intense, there was very strong resistance from colleagues from Ukraine, who frankly did not want Russia to have its own engine for cruise missiles, and had strong lobbying positions in the ordering department of the Russian Ministry of Defense at that time. (These "colleagues" were from the Zaporozhye Motor Sich plant, they had fat orders for engines from the Russian military department and did not want to lose them. - Auth.)

It was clear to us that sooner or later Russia would need its own engine. The case helped. In 2000, Putin came to Saturn, and I reported to him that the creation of a Russian engine for a cruise missile was going slowly, because the main problem was the pro-Ukrainian position in the ordering missile department of our Ministry of Defense. To which Putin replied briefly: “Addresses? Turnouts? Let's get wet!" I thought he was joking. But by the way the faces of the retinue changed - the profile Deputy Prime Minister Klebanov and the head of the then Roscosmos Koptev - it became clear that the result of this "conversation" would be. And so it happened. Fans of vodka and lard had to vacate their chairs - and things got off the ground!

For solving this problem, the plant received gratitude from the president, and many employees received state awards and titles.

9. What other "surprises" do we have on the way?

We have the same accurate and effective weapon as the Caliber, but its development, of course, is kept secret. Although something is already lit.

These are, for example, the new Zircon hypersonic missiles. Until recently, they were considered sea-based weapons, and are now being transferred to land and aircraft systems.

They work on targets at a distance of more than 1000 km at a speed of 9 Machs (9 times faster than sound). They overcome any anti-aircraft defense and completely neutralize the superiority of the US Navy. Several Zircons are capable of destroying a $20-30 billion US aircraft carrier strike group in a matter of minutes. (Ed Note—The Wikipedia, a Western-intel controlled platform, has this to say: The high speed of the Zircon likely gives it better target-penetration characteristics than lighter subsonic cruise-missiles, such as Tomahawk. Being twice as heavy and almost eleven times as fast as Tomahawk, the Zircon has more than 242 times the on-cruise kinetic energy of a Tomahawk missile (~9 gigajoules, or equal to 2,150 kg TNT explosive energy). Its 8-9 mach speed means that it cannot be intercepted by existing missile defence systems and its precision makes it lethal to large targets such as aircraft carriers.^[45][46]

There is also a cruise missile with a nuclear engine of unlimited action "Petrel" in the stash.

A Russian MiG-31 fighter with an even more formidable weapon under its “belly” than the “Caliber” - the “Dagger” hypersonic missile. Photo: kremlin.ru

The missile itself can find gaps in missile defense.

10. Can you only launch from ships?

"Caliber" is a universal missile - it can be launched from diesel submarines (of the Varshavyanka type), missile ships, and from aircraft (for example, from a Su-35 attack fighter). There is also a land version of the Caliber (Club-K container missile system).

11. Is it intercepted by conventional air defense systems?

During the special military operation, the Ukrainians have never been able to bring down the Caliber. Its unique property is its low flight altitude. As the experts say, "Caliber" can be seen, but cannot be shot down.

The capabilities of this missile allow it to deceive the enemy's air defenses.

As for NATO, the United States has such an opportunity. Here is how the American experts themselves assess the situation: “Today, only Russian Kalibr missiles can reach the American military bases in Eastern Syria. Our Patriot systems, at least theoretically, can intercept them. But there has not yet been a single real interception of the Caliber by the Patriot missile defense systems. If this happened, the Pentagon would happily trumpet it to the whole world.

12. Can it carry a nuclear charge?

Yes maybe. The special nuclear warhead created for the Caliber has a "limitedly small" yield of up to 1 kiloton (20 times weaker than the US bomb dropped on Hiroshima). When it explodes, the openly located enemy manpower will be destroyed by a shock wave at a distance of 700 meters.

Vladimir Putin, by the way, stated that theoretically, the nuclear use of 3M14 is possible. But he noted that "I hope it will not come to this."

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