Russia will test-fire an ICBM from a missile-equipped “death train” in 2019, according to Russian media. The Barguzin “railroad combat complex,” or BZhRK, will be armed with six RS-24 Yars ICBMs, a fifty-five-ton missile that reportedly carries up to ten nuclear warheads, and is already deployed in fixed silos and mobile truck-mounted launchers.—

There will be five railroad missile regiments, each consisting of one train and six ballistic missiles. Operational deployment is slated for 2020.

Barguzin is not a new concept. It is actually a revival of train-launched ICBMs, fielded by the Soviet Union beginning in the 1960s. The twelve trains, equipped with three RT-23 Scalpel missiles each, were …