RT-23 Molodets
Encyclopedia
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
ICBM developed and produced by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau , located in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, is a designer of satellites and rockets, and formerly of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles established by Mikhail Yangel. Yuzhnoye's OKB designation was OKB-586....
before 1991. It is cold launched, and comes in silo and railway car based variants. It is a three stage missile
Missile
Though a missile may be any thrown or launched object, it colloquially almost always refers to a self-propelled guided weapon system.-Etymology:The word missile comes from the Latin verb mittere, meaning "to send"...
that uses solid fuel
Solid rocket
A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a rocket engine that uses solid propellants . The earliest rockets were solid-fuel rockets powered by gunpowder; they were used by the Chinese in warfare as early as the 13th century and later by the Mongols, Arabs, and Indians.All rockets used some form of...
and thrust vectoring
Thrust vectoring
Thrust vectoring, also thrust vector control or TVC, is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine or motor in order to control the attitude or angular velocity of the vehicle....
for the first stage, with 10 MIRV warheads, each with 550 kT yield.
History
The missile was the culmination of a major Soviet effort to develop a medium solid-fueled missile with multiple basing modes: silo-based and rail-based versions were deployed, and a road-mobile version was considered but rejected. This made for a much more survivable ICBM, as the rail-based missiles could move around the rail network and thus be difficult to detect and track. The new missile was to replace the older liquid-fueled SS-19 missiles which were entirely silo-based. Its US counterpart was the MX missile.The missile was tested through the 1980s and began to be deployed in 1987. Its production facilities were located in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. After the Soviet Union broke up in 1991, Ukraine had no interest in producing ICBMs and so the production of the missile came to an end. A typical set of missile launch trains were composed of three M62 class locomotives (a standard diesel electric locomotive of the period), followed by generating power car, command car, support car, and three missile launch vehicles, with a total of nine-car train set. The frontmost locomotive is driven by three officers, and the two other engines right behind the front locomotive are driven by two enlisted personnel each. The missile launcher has a shape of a refrigerator car, and the service cars are those that were converted from passenger carriages.
Just before the breakup of the USSR, 92 missiles were operational, 36 based in stationary silos and 56 rail-based. The 36 silo-based missiles located in Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
were deactivated by mid 1996, disassembled and put into storage awaiting decision on a feasible disposition method, but the 56 missiles in Russia remained in service. The missile was to be banned under the provisions of START II
START II
START II was a bilateral treaty between the United States of America and Russia on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed by United States President George H. W...
, but that treaty was never ratified. The 10 silo-based missiles in Russia were deactivated around 2000. After 2000 the rail-based missiles were also gradually withdrawn from service, with the remaining 15 decommissioned in August 2005. Elimination of the last SS-24 ICBM in Russia was in April 2008.
Variants
| DIA | SS-24 | |||
| PL-04 | SS-24 | SS-24V | SS-24 | |
| NATO | Scalpel | Scalpel | Scalpel | Scalpel |
| Bilateral | RS-22B | RS-22A | RS-22V | |
| Service | RT-23 | RT-23 | RT-23 UTTKh | RT-23 UTTKh |
| GRAU Grau Grau is a German word meaning "gray" and a Catalan word meaning "grade". It may refer to:* BAP Almirante Grau , a De Zeven Provinciën class cruiser in service with the Peruvian Navy* Grau Käse, Tyrolean grey cheese... |
15Zh44 | 15Zh52 | 15Zh60 | 15Zh61 |
| Design Bureau | SKB-586, NPO Yuzhynoy Acad. V. F. Utkin | SKB-586, NPO Yuzhnoye Acad. V. F. Utkin | SKB-586, NPO Yuzhnoye Acad. V. F. Utkin | SKB-586, NPO Yuzhnoye Acad. V. F. Utkin |
| Approved | 23 July 1976 | 1 June 1979 | 9 August 1983 | 9 August 1983 |
| Years of R&D | January 1969 - March 1977 | November 1982 - 1987 | 1983–1989 | 1983–1989 |
| Engineering and Testing | 1985-87 | |||
| First Flight Test | 26 October 1982 Failure, 12/1982 Success | April 1984 | 31 July 1986 | 27 February 1985 |
| IOC | canceled | 20 October 1987 | 19 August 1988 | 12/1987 |
| Deployment Date | Canceled | November 1987 | 28 November 1989 | 28 November 1989 |
| Type of Warhead | MIRV | MIRV | MIRV | MIRV |
| Warheads | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Yield (Mt) | 0.55 | 0.35 -0.55 | 0.35 -0.55 | 0.3 -0.55 |
| Payload (t) | 4.05 | 4.05 | 4.05 | 4.05 |
| Total length (m) | 23.3 | 23.4 - 23.8 | 18.8 - 23.4 | 23.3 |
| Total length w/o warhead (m) | 18.8, 19 | 19 | 19 | 19 |
| Missile Diameter (m) | 2.4 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 2.4 |
| Launch Weight (t) | 104.5 | 104.5 | 104.5 | 104.5 |
| Range (km) | 10,000 | 10,000 - 11,000 | 10,100 -11,000 | 10,100 - 10,450 |
| CEP Circular error probable In the military science of ballistics, circular error probable is an intuitive measure of a weapon system's precision... (m) (Russian Sources) |
500 | 500 | 500 | 500 |
| CEP (m) (Western Sources) | 150-250 | 150-250 | 150-250 | 150-250 |
| Basing Mode | Silo | Silo | Railroad | |
Former оperators
and : The Strategic Rocket ForcesStrategic Rocket Forces
The Strategic Missile Troops or Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or RVSN RF , transliteration: Raketnye voyska strategicheskogo naznacheniya Rossiyskoy Federatsii, literally Missile Troops of Strategic Designation of the Russian Federation) are a military branch of the Russian...
were the only operators of the RT-23 until the breakup of the Soviet Union.
: The Armed Forces of Ukraine inherited 60 RT-23 missiles upon independence from the Soviet Union, all were sent to Russia by 1994.