12th Chief Directorate - Special Control Service (SSK)

Special Control Service (SSK)

There is a smaller autonomous organization within the main 12th GU MO structure – known as “military unit 46179”, “the Special Control Service of the Defense Ministry,” “atomic intelligence,” or “nuclear intelligence” of the former Soviet Union.

The Special Control Service is tasked with gathering intelligence on nuclear weapons and particularly on nuclear testing of various adversaries of the former USSR by all means – ranging from six technical control methods to analyzing radio-intercepts and periodicals. The Special Control Service was not a part of the 12th GU MO from very beginning, but was formerly a part of the GRU, its 6th Directorate’s department of special observation. However, it was later detached from the GRU and made an independent Special Observation Service of the Defense Ministry. Then it was renamed into a Special Control Service and re-subordinated first to the Directorate of the Commander of the Chemical Troops (the analogue of a standard ABC service in the Soviet Army), and then again re-subordinated to the 12th GU MO.

The Special Control Service has its own network of military units, named “detection laboratories”, each headed by a Colonel, which are situated in many spots inside and outside of the Soviet Union and are all linked to the Service headquarters and to its computation centres by its own secure communication network which is totally independent from the communication network of the 12th GU MO itself.