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12/10/2002: SS-19 LAUNCH FROM BAYKONUR
On 10 December 2002, the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces launched a UR-100NUTTKh [NATO designation SS-19 'Stiletto'] ICBM from the Baykonur Cosmodrome. At the time of launch the
missile was more than 25 years old.[1] The missile was launched in full
six-warhead configuration. The dummy warheads landed on the Kura range on
Russia's
Kamchatka peninsula.[2]
10/7/2002: ABM INTERCEPTOR LAUNCHED
FROM SARY-SHAGAN
ITAR-TASS reported on 7 October 2002 that the Russian military had successfully
launched a "long-range" anti-ballistic missile (ABM) interceptor
of unspecified type from the Sary-Shagan
testing range. (See the
10/7/2002 and
9/30/2002 entries in the
Russia: Strategic C3 and ABM Developments file for further information.)
8/7/2002: AZGYR NUCLEAR TESTING GROUND
DECLARED SAFE
Yerbolat Akhmetov, laboratory director
of the
Institute of
Nuclear Physics at the
National Nuclear Center, announced
that the former nuclear test site at Azgyr is now safe for
the population. According to Akhmetov, radioactive soil
from the site has been collected and placed in special repositories.
Recultivation efforts are currently under way. Scientists have suggested conducting
future
research on groundwater and oil deposits at the site.
5/25/2001: IMPROVEMENTS AND PROBLEMS NOTED AT SARY-SHAGAN TESTING SITE
On 25 May 2001, Nezavisimoye voyennoye obozreniye
reported that Sary-Shagan, a Russian ABM testing site operating under a 10-year lease from Kazakhstan, is suffering from social support
problems affecting its personnel. The Sary-Shagan
test site was established in 1956 as the 10th State
Scientific Research Testing Range where missiles used for ABM systems, air defenses, and laser
weapons were tested. It was the
only Soviet ABM test site permitted under the 1972 ABM Treaty. Sary-Shagan's
facilities fell into disrepair due to a lack of funding between 1990 and 1997. In 1998, work began at Sary-Shagan
to restore its capabilities, enabling it to resume some test activities.[1] On 2 November 1999, a close intercept
anti-ballistic missile was test-launched from Sary-Shagan.[2] Another
test of an ABM missile was reported on
2 May 2001.[3] However, Sary-Shagan is still suffering from a range
of social problems. Due
to its ambiguous legal status as a Russian-controlled facility in
Kazakhstan, basic services such as
transportation, child support, and medical care are not being provided to
personnel assigned there. According to Nezavisimoye voyennoye
obozreniye, the absence of basic services is threatening the morale and effectiveness
of personnel at Sary-Shagan.[1]
11/1/2000:
RUSSIA LAUNCHES AN SS-19 MISSILE FROM BAYKONUR
On 1 November 2000 the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces
launched an RS-18 ICBM [NATO designation SS-19 'Stiletto'] from a silo at the Baykonur test site in
Kazakhstan. The 25-year-old missile hit its training target at the Kura
testing ground on the Kamchatka peninsula in Russia. This follows the
launch of an RS-20 ICBM [NATO designation SS-18 'Satan'] with five satellites
from Baykonur in September/October 2000.
6/28/2000: KAZAKHSTAN
RATIFIES AGREEMENTS ON RUSSIA'S USE OF TEST RANGES
On 28 June 2000 Kazakhstan's parliament ratified
a set of agreements leasing the following four military test ranges to
Russia: Sary-Shagan, Emba, the 929th Flight Test Center, and facilities
associated with Russia's Kapustin Yar Test Site. The agreements are valid for 10 years from ratification. Russia will pay Kazakhstan $27.5 million
in rent each year, $24.3 million of which will be in-kind payments in the
form of military training and supplies.
11/99: RUSSIAN TROOPS MOVE FROM EMBA TO KAPUSTIN YAR
In November 1999 the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces completed the relocation
of personnel, military property, and technical equipment from Emba to Kapustin
Yar, Astrakhan Oblast, Russia, and ended their lease of the test site.
11/2/99: ABM MISSILE TEST
AT SARY SHAGAN
Against the background of the ongoing US-Russian
dispute over possible amendments to the ABM Treaty, the Russian Strategic
Rocket Forces (SRF) on 2 November 1999 launched a 53T6 [NATO name 'Gazelle']
short-range interceptor missile at the Sary-Shagan testing range in Kazakhstan.[1]
According to SRF Commander-in-Chief Colonel General Vladimir Yakovlev,
it was the first test launch of its kind since 1993. The 53T6 missile
is used to equip the A-135 anti-ballistic missile system deployed around
Moscow. According to Jane's Intelligence Review, this
missile has an effective intercepting range of 80km and is armed with an
AA-84 thermonuclear warhead.[3] The Moscow anti-ballistic missile system
includes the full complement of 100 interceptor missiles permitted by the
ABM Treaty. The system has a dual defense against ballistic missiles.
According to the Washington Post, "if radars spot incoming missiles,
Russia could launch up to 36 longer-range SH-11 Gorgon missiles.
Should any missiles penetrate this layer, the system also has 64 short-range
SH-08 Gazelle missiles, which are quick-reaction, high-acceleration interceptors."[2]
The missile tested was withdrawn from combat duty in a silo launcher near
Moscow and transferred to Kazakhstan for the test launch. Yakovlev
said that the aim of the test was to extend the missile system's service
life, adding that its success confirmed the combat readiness of the interceptor
missile, and extend its planned service life by 12.5 years.[1,3]
Interfax reported that this statement suggests that the missiles involved
in the test have been deployed for some time.[4,2] Ivan Safranchuk,
an analyst with the PIR
Center for Policy Studies in Russia, said that the test served as a
reminder that Russia has an operational missile defense system, and that
it may decide to modernize it. Yakovlev himself pointed out that the test
should be viewed as illustrating a possible symmetrical and asymmetrical
response by Russia to US plans to deploy limited national missile defenses.[5]
According to Reuters, an anonymous US State Department Official said that
the United States found the test launch "distressing," and that "Russia
is raising the specter of an arms competition when what we're trying to
do is work cooperatively with them to focus on rogue states."
In his public comments on the Russian test, US Defense Secretary William
Cohen said that he was not sure what point Russia was trying to make with
its test. "It only proves they have an Anti-Ballistic Missile system,
which we do not, " Cohen said. [6] The United States briefly deployed
an ABM system at Grand Forks, North Dakota, but dismantled it over 20 years
ago.
7/31/99: RUSSIAN FORCES AT EMBA WILL TRANSFER
TO KAPUSTIN YAR
At a meeting of the Russian Strategic Missile Forces Military Council in
Kapustin Yar on 31 July 1999, Strategic Missile Forces Commander-in-Chief
Vladimir Yakovlev announced a decision to withdraw Russian troops and missile
test equipment from the Emba test site and relocate them to Kapustin Yar
by December 1999. Yakovlev noted that the Kapustin Yar facility was
70 percent ready for the transfer, but work in some areas would have to
be accelerated to meet the December deadline. The closure of the
Emba test range will save Russia $4.7 million in rent annually. Yakovlev
added that without the missile test and space launch programs at Kapustin
Yar, Russia "will have no say in the 21st century."
2/4/99: WESTERN KAZAKHSTAN ALLOCATES FUNDS FOR ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH
Western Kazakhstan Oblast allocated about $23,500 of its budget for
environmental research in two districts bordering Kapustin Yar, a former
Russian missile testing site suspected of being a source of radiation and
pollution. The allocation of research funds follows a proposal by
regional legislators and the local environmental group Naryn. Naryn
leader Kaken Kubeisinov says that the group possesses documents with research
data indicating that a large part of Western Kazakhstan is polluted with
radionuclides, heavy metals, and highly toxic missile fuel. According
to Kubeisinov, environmental research programs planned for Kapustin Yar
between 1995 and 1997 were never carried out due to lack of funds.
5/12/98: KAZAKHSTAN, RUSSIA
DIFFER OVER TERMS OF RENT FOR TEST SITES
On 12 May 1998, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed
laws on the ratification of an agreement between Kazakhstan and Russia
on the rent for military test ranges located in Kazakhstan.[1] However,
the two countries still disagree on the terms of payment. In 1995, Russia
and Kazakhstan agreed that Russia will pay $27.5 million per year to lease
the Sary-Shagan, Emba, Vladimirovka test ranges, and facilities associated with
Russia's Kapustin Yar Test Site. Russia,
which has not paid the rent for the bases since the signing of the agreement,
contends that this rent should be automatically deducted from Kazakhstan's
$1.8 billion debt to Russia, while Kazakhstan demands the rent be paid
in currency. Kazakhstan may be open to a compromise under which $24.3 million
of the annual rent be paid in the form of weapons and military equipment,
possibly including antiaircraft systems and Su-25, Su-27, and MiG-29 aircraft,
with the remaining $3.2 million to be paid in currency. The terms of payment
are likely to remain a contentious issue between the two countries.[2]
5/1/97: PARLIAMENTARIAN CRITICIZES REPORT
Engels Gabbasov, chairman of the Kazakhstani Joint
Parliamentary Commission on Test Ranges criticized a document, commissioned
by President Nazarbayev, concerning the proposed closure of all test ranges
on Kazakhstani territory. Gabbasov claims that the document, which was
to include an unbiased, comprehensive study of the effects of military
and technical tests on the population and the environment, is not truly
comprehensive, and presents a diminished picture of the negative consequences
of these test ranges.
2/4/97: KAZAKHSTANI PARLIAMENT REFUSES TO RATIFY THE LEASE OF MILITARY
TEST SITES
The Kazakhstani parliament refused to ratify an agreement on Russia’s use
of four military test sites in Kazakhstan that was signed by Kazakhstani
Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin and Russian Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin
on 18 October 1996. Deputy Sharip Omarov noted that damage caused by nuclear
testing during the Soviet era has cost the Kazakhstani government $115
million since 1991. Omarov also said that once Kazakhstanbecomes a non-nuclear
state, the next step would be to ban conventional weapons testing on the
country's soil.
12/11/96: KAZAKHSTANI SENATOR ON RUSSIA’S MILITARY TESTS IN KAZAKHSTAN
In an interview with Kazakhstanskaya pravda, Senator Engels Gabbasov of
the Kazakhstani parliamentary committee for foreign affairs, defense, and
security, called for the closure of the Kazakhstani section of the Kapustin
Yar missile test site and other testing grounds leased to Russia. Kazakhstani-Russian
agreements to prolong the use of four military sites in Kazakhstan were
signed on 18 October 1996. Gabbasov stated that Kapustin Yar and other
military test sites in Kazakhstan have been used for 50 years; 11 atmospheric
nuclear explosions were conducted at Kapustin Yar and 17 underground nuclear
explosions at the Azgyr test site. The leased area, comprising over 110,000
square km stretching from Lake Balkhash to the western border, which includes
testing ranges for air strike targets and missiles, is excluded from air
and land transportation and economic activities and is polluted by heavy
metals and remains of heptyl (liquid rocket propellant). No reclamation
work has been done at the Azgyr test site after Russian guards left it
in March 1996. Gabbasov also did not rule out the possibility that biological
tests were carried out in Western Kazakhstan in the past, recalling widespread
epidemic among animals in the summers of 1981 and 1982 in the Atyrau and
Western Kazakhstan regions.
10/18/96: RUSSIA TO CONTINUE USE OF KAZAKHSTANI
MILITARY TEST SITES
Kazakhstani Prime Minister Akezhan Kazhegeldin and Russian Prime Minister
Viktor Chernomyrdin signed four agreements on continuing the Russian use
of four military sites in Kazakhstan for a ten-year period. The test sites
are Emba, Sary-Shagan, Central Military Test Site No. 4 (part of Kapustin
Yar), and 929th State Test Flight Center. Russia is supposed to pay $26.5 million annually for the lease of
the sites which it wants to pay in kind, by supplying military equipment
and technologies and training Kazakhstani students at Russian military
schools. However, Kazakhstani opposition leaders felt that Russia might
fail to pay the rent, as it has never paid its $115 million annual payment
for the use of the Baykonur cosmodrome, claiming that Kazakhstan owes more
than $400 million to Moscow.
6/25/96: UNDERGROUND
RESERVOIRS CREATED BY NUCLEAR EXPLOSIONS DEFORMED, FILLING WITH WATER
It was reported that an underground storage area
at the Karachaganak oil and gas condensate deposit, which was created by
a nuclear explosion [at the Lira site], has been filled by groundwater.
Local environmental authorities are concerned about the possibility that
the radiation-contaminated water may leak from the underground storage
area. Another Karachaganak storage area has been in danger of being penetrated
by groundwater since 1990. At the Galit site, five of the underground storage
areas created by nuclear explosions have also been filled with a salt solution.
The deformation of underground reservoirs at the neighboring Russian Astrakhan
deposit started in 1986, and has been classified as a "radiation accident
of the III class" by Russia’s Gosatomnadzor.
Last updated 28 March 2003
Comments or questions? Contact Kenley Butler at MIIS CNS: Kenley.Butler@miis.edu
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