12th Chief Directorate - Main Structure and Tasks

Main Structure and Tasks

In its main part the 12th GU MO consists of the headquarters, or the “directorate of the Chief of the 12 Chief Directorate”, located in central Moscow – Znamenskiy Pereulok 19, unit number 31600. There was also a central archive, popularly known as “the nuclear registrar,” where any and every piece of the Soviet or Russian nuclear munitions is registered. Besides, it consists of a network of nuclear arsenal bases both central and “dedicated” where nuclear warheads/munitions are actually being kept. These bases are called “Special-Technical Formations”, but their whole is called “Special Troops of Supreme Command Reserve”.

Each base is typically the size of a regiment, sometimes the size of a brigade, but it is usually commanded by a Major-General or sometimes by a Rear Admiral rather than by a Colonel because their importance and elevated status makes them technically equal to that of a regular infantry or other division. Many of commanding officers serving at its Moscow head-quarters bear General’s and Admiral’s ranks, since almost all of them are being promoted from among remote arsenal base commanders. That is why percentage of Generals and Admirals among commissioned officers in the 12th GU MO is considerably higher than in any other military organization of the Russian Armed Forces or the Russian Navy. Such nuclear arsenal bases are usually located far enough from big cities (at least 50 kilometres), but close enough to the military units that would use these nuclear warheads in case of war (primarily it is Intercontinental Ballistic Missile batteries, but also missile batteries with shorter range, theatre and tactical missile units, navy and aviation units armed with nuclear weapons, units of military saboteurs and engineers that were supposed to use portable nuclear munitions, anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile defences that use nuclear-tipped missiles, etc.). So the main purpose of the 12th Chief Directorate’s existence is to securely separate “end-users” of nuclear weapons from their actual nuclear weapons during times of peace. Only in case of real necessity those who are supposed to have nuclear weapons would get them and it could only happen when authorized by the top political leadership. Presently only some small number of nuclear warheads are always issued to end-users, such as warheads attached to ballistic missiles currently at service, but most of the Russian nuclear arsenal is being securely kept by the 12th Chief Directorate units and could only be issued to others in case of emergency.

Moreover, this organization is tasked to collect currently issued nuclear warheads back from their end-users for a reason of replacement or upgrading, and to conduct technical maintenance on nuclear weapons currently issued to end-users at their territories. For this reason each military unit that armed with nuclear warheads currently in service also has some permanently attached representatives of the 12th GU MO nearest arsenal bases whose main duty is to supervise prescribed handling and to conduct required technical maintenance of these issued nuclear warheads. The 12th GU MO nuclear arsenal bases’ staff is additionally trained for being able to attach nuclear warheads to their carriers, ballistic and other missiles, to strategic bombers and to other kind of aircraft, a task which usually assigned to special units of end-users. Such additional training is conducted for a reason that 12th GU MO specialists could replace specialists of the end-users in this capacity in case of emergency.

Another task of the 12th GU MO is to prevent so-called "nuclear terrorism," but this is a relatively modern task, which did not exist formerly.

Besides these nuclear arsenal bases, the 12th Chief Directorate maintains several nuclear weapons research institutes in Moscow and in Sergiev Posad, near Moscow, with their subsidiaries located at nuclear testing grounds in Semipalatinsk-21 and on Novaya Zemlya Archipelago, and in several other cities (Saint Petersburg, for example). It also maintains a separate research institute tasked with developing nuclear explosions detection technology.

Another function of the 12th GU MO is to serve as a link between the Armed Forces and those branches of Soviet/Russian industry and science related to nuclear weapons developing and manufacturing. It is actually the 12th Chief Directorate that develops detailed plans for required nuclear armament and its improvements and places orders for nuclear weapons production before civilian manufacturers.