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Sary Shagan ( rus, Сары-Шаган; kz, Сарышаған) is an
anti-ballistic missile An anti-ballistic missile (ABM) is a surface-to-air missile designed to counter ballistic missiles (missile defense). Ballistic missiles are used to deliver nuclear, chemical, biological, or conventional warheads in a ballistic flight trajec ...
testing range located in
Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...
. On 17 August 1956 the
Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union The Council of Ministers of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics ( rus, Совет министров СССР, r=Sovet Ministrov SSSR, p=sɐˈvʲet mʲɪˈnʲistrəf ɛsɛsɛˈsɛr; sometimes abbreviated to ''Sovmin'' or referred to as the '' ...
authorized plans for an experimental facility for missile defense located at Sary Shagan, on the west bank of Lake Balkhash. The first missile launched from the facility was a V-1000 on 16 October 1958, but the facilities for full-scale testing were not ready until 1961. Sary Shagan remains in use to this day, with the latest known launch on 2 December 2022. The town of Sary Shagan was a closed city until 2005. The administrative center, Priozersk remained a closed city. The length of the site is 480 km. The Sary Shagan range was the intended landing site for the sample return canister of the Russian Fobos-Grunt mission.


History

The first and only one in
Eurasia Eurasia (, ) is the largest continental area on Earth, comprising all of Europe and Asia. Primarily in the Northern and Eastern Hemispheres, it spans from the British Isles and the Iberian Peninsula in the west to the Japanese archipelag ...
test site for the development and testing of anti-missile weapons. In
USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nati ...
, the official name of the test site was State Research and Testing Site No. 10 USSR Ministry of Defense. The test site occupied 81,200 km² (including 49,200 km² in the Karaganda region Kazakh SSR). The construction of the test site and the city began in 1956Abandoned sword of the empire
(Photo report on the trip to the Sary-Shagan test site, 2008)
in connection with the development of a missile defense system called System A. The main criteria for selecting a site for the test site, like when creating the Kapustin Yar and NIIP-5 rocket ranges ( Baikonur), were the presence of sparsely populated lowland woodland, a large number of cloudless days, and the lack of valuable farmland. Marshal Nedelin recalled: On June 9, 1960 and at the test site General Designer OKB-301 S. A. Lavochkin died of a heart attack (during the test of the air defense system “”). On March 4, 1961 for the first time in the world a ballistic missile warhead was hit by an experimental complex missile defense at the test site. In October 1961 and October 1962, five nuclear explosions at altitudes from 80 km to 300 km were carried out over the test site during Soviet Project K nuclear tests. July 15, 1966 and by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the test site was awarded the Order of Lenin for successfully completing the tasks of developing and mastering new military equipment. On April 20, 1981 the test site (10 GNIIP Air Defense Forces) was awarded the Order of the Red Star. All Soviet and Russian complexes
PRO Pro is an abbreviation meaning " professional". Pro, PRO or variants thereof may also refer to: People * Miguel Pro (1891–1927), Mexican priest * Pro Hart (1928–2006), Australian painter * Mlungisi Mdluli (born 1980), South African retire ...
and
air defense Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...
long-range, many promising
radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, Marine radar, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor v ...
, experimental complexes based on combat
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...
high power (including the program “ Terra”, “
Omega Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The ...
”). In total, the following was tested at the test site: 6 antimissile systems; 12 anti-aircraft missile systems; 7 types of anti-missile; 12 types of anti-aircraft guided missiles; 14 types of measuring equipment; 18 radar systems and several systems on new physical principles. Testing of 15 strategic missile systems and their modifications is provided. In 1998, the Sary-Shagan test site was withdrawn from the troops AD and reassigned to 4th State Central Interspecific Test Site (administered by the Strategic Rocket Forces).


Current status

In the 1990s, most of the test site facilities were decommissioned and abandoned; in subsequent years, they were looted by marauders, and the equipment was dismantled. As of 2014, due to the controversial legal status of abandoned test sites, these territories have not been cleaned up: they are cluttered with the remnants of buildings and structures, and are polluted by military waste. After the proclamation in 1991 of the independence of Kazakhstan, its sovereignty extends to the test site. In 1996, an
agreement Agreement may refer to: Agreements between people and organizations * Gentlemen's agreement, not enforceable by law * Trade agreement, between countries * Consensus, a decision-making process * Contract, enforceable in a court of law ** Meeting ...
was signed between the Government of the Russian Federation and the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan on the lease of the Sary-Shagan testing ground, under which Russia leased part of the test site area. The areas to which the rent did not apply were transferred to the use of the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, no specific steps have been taken, the property has not yet been taken to the balance of the relevant departments of Kazakhstan. In fact, the territory of the test site is not protected. In practice, the site is open to all who wish to visit it. There are no designations of the boundaries of the test site, no information signs and shields on which it would be explained what the risk of unauthorized visitors to the site and the responsibility they may incur for it. To obtain the same official permission, subject to the availability of all the necessary
document A document is a written, drawn, presented, or memorialized representation of thought, often the manifestation of non-fictional, as well as fictional, content. The word originates from the Latin ''Documentum'', which denotes a "teaching" o ...
s, it takes many months. Without any permits at the site, the local population earns a living by collecting scrap and "mining" building materials. Media reported several cases of the discovery of remnants of weapons by the population, for example, those found in 2005 in abandoned barrels with
napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated alu ...
(the Soviet military name is “”). In connection with the collapse of the Soviet defense industry and in connection with the reduction of Russian missile defense programs and since the late 1990s, missile tests at the test site have been performed only once or twice a year . In particular, in December 2010 and training exercises were conducted with a Topol rocket. The military units of the Ministry of Defense of Kazakhstan.Photo archive
/ref> From 2005, entry into the city of Priozersk is carried out without a permit. Until 2009, the Kazakhstan Road
police The police are a Law enforcement organization, constituted body of Law enforcement officer, persons empowered by a State (polity), state, with the aim to law enforcement, enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citize ...
at security checkpoint KPP recorded the time of entry, the model of the car, and ; since 2009, the data of the majority of cars entering are not recorded. October 24, 2012 and a conditional target at the test site destroyed a prototype of a new Russian ballistic missile with a mobile launcher RS-26, launched from Kapustin Yar in Astrakhan areas Russia. On March 4, 2014, the RS-12M Topol intercontinental ballistic missile launched from Kapustin Yar test site in Astrakhan Region Russia struck a training target at the test site. In 2016, the Russian-Kazakh agreement was ratified, which established new boundaries of the landfill, excluding some sections. At the beginning of 2017, the modernization of the experimental test base of the test site began. The ground-based optical-electronic systems "Beret-M", optical-electronic stations of the trajectory-measuring complex "OES TIK", optical-electronic stations "Sazhen-TM", receiving antenna complexes were delivered. On 2 December 2022 Russian army announced that they had successfully tested a new missile defence system (possibly Nudol) in Sary Shagan.


Other notable military complexes on site

In the 1970s the Vympel NPO, Geofizika, Phazotron, MNIIRE Altair, others; built the Terra-3
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word "laser" is an acronym for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation". The ...
testing centre at Sary Shagan.


Radar site

The Sary Shagan site has hosted a number of radar prototypes such as the Don-2NP. Also there is Balkhash-9 radar station a few km away which started in the 1960s and functioned as part of the Russian missile warning network until 2020.


References in Fiction

* The Sary Shagan site is one of the USSR ABM/SDI sites featured in the
Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have b ...
novel '' The Cardinal of the Kremlin''. * The site is mentioned in the manga ' Battle Angel Alita' in reference to a supposedly historical weapon, a ' scalar field' device called the 'Sarishagan tiger'.


References


Further reading

* * {{Military testing centers in Kazakhstan Rocket launch sites Science and technology in the Soviet Union Military installations of the Soviet Union Weapons test sites Military installations of Russia in other countries Karaganda Region Soviet Air Defence Force bases 1958 establishments in the Soviet Union