Russia is carrying out a large-scale modernization of mines in the Orenburg region that are capable of launching nuclear missiles.
This is evidenced by satellite images and publicly available documentation of these facilities, which were analyzed by journalists from the Danish project Danwatch and the German magazine Der Spiegel.
Satellite images show that over the past decade, Russia has modernized a large number of missile launchers in the area of the city of Yasny, near the border with Kazakhstan.
Among the renovated facilities is the base of the 621st Missile Regiment, where new roads, buildings and protective structures have been built. Also, a comprehensive modernization is underway at the base of the 368th Missile Regiment, located 17 km away. Both of these units are armed with Avangard strategic nuclear complexes.
In addition, journalists analyzed more than two million documents related to Russian military procurement that they discovered in the public domain. According to the documents, in parallel with the development of new types of weapons, Russia was building completely new military facilities.
“Entire bases were almost completely razed to the ground and rebuilt from scratch; hundreds of new barracks, watchtowers, command centers, and storage facilities were built; several kilometers of underground tunnels were dug,” Danwatch writes.
The documents also contain information about the supply of a large number of construction materials to the facilities — steel, sand, cement, bricks and insulation materials, as well as more sensitive elements such as IT systems, electrical installations, water supply, heating and ventilation.
The documents contain detailed descriptions of security systems: three layers of electric fences around the outer perimeter of the bases, seismic and background radiation sensors, blast-proof doors and windows, reinforced concrete buildings, and alarm systems with magnetic contacts and infrared sensors. In some cases, they even specify the type and location of internal surveillance cameras on the buildings.
They also reveal in detail the internal layout of the facilities. The documents describe where the soldiers eat, sleep and use the toilet. They also indicate where they rest and what exercise equipment they use (mostly treadmills and dumbbells), what games they play in their free time (chess and checkers), and what signs hang on the walls ("Stop! Turn around! Forbidden zone!", "Military oath", "Rules for shoe care"). They indicate in which basement rooms protective equipment is stored and where the cabinets with weapons are located. They also clearly state where the command posts are located and which buildings are connected by underground tunnels.
In the tender documentation, journalists discovered that the Russian military uses, in particular, products from Western companies for the construction of facilities — cement, gypsum, glue, insulation and soundproofing materials, notes Spiegel. Products from the German company Knauf are especially often used.
The documents that have become publicly available belong to the highest category of intelligence information and allow us to identify vulnerabilities for attack, Philip Ingram, former commander of the 1st Military Intelligence Battalion of the British Army, told Danwatch.
"The fact that you were able to detect this indicates a serious breakdown in procedures in Russia," he stressed.
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