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Molodets
The RT-23 Molodets (russian: РТ-23 УТТХ «Мо́лодец», lit. "brave man" or "fine fellow"; NATO reporting name: SS-24 Scalpel) was a cold-launched, three-stage, solid-fueled intercontinental ballistic missile developed and produced before 1991 by the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnipro, Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union). It came in silo- and rail-based variants, and was armed with 10 MIRV warheads (GRAU index: ''15Ф444'') of 550 kt yield. All missiles were decommissioned by 2005 in accordance with the START II. History The missile and rail-based missile complex – or ''BZhRK'' (russian: БЖРК, Боевой Железнодорожный Ракетный Комплекс, lit. "''Combat Rail-based Missile Complex''") – were developed by the brothers Vladimir and Alexei Utkin as chief engineers in Yuzhnoye Design Bureau and Design Bureau for Special Machine-Building respectively. It was the culmination of a major Soviet effort to develop a solid-p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Missile Launch Facility
A missile launch facility, also known as an underground missile silo, launch facility (LF), or nuclear silo, is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs). Similar facilities can be used for anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs). The structures typically have the missile some distance below ground, protected by a large "blast door" on top. They are usually connected, physically and/or electronically, to a missile launch control center. With the introduction of the Soviet UR-100 and the U.S. Titan II missile series, underground silos changed in the 1960s. Both missile series introduced the use of hypergolic propellant, which could be stored in the missiles, allowing for rapid launches. Both countries' liquid-fueled missile systems were moved into underground silos. The introduction of solid fuel systems, in th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Missile Silo
A missile launch facility, also known as an underground missile silo, launch facility (LF), or nuclear silo, is a vertical cylindrical structure constructed underground, for the storage and launching of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs). Similar facilities can be used for anti-ballistic missiles (ABMs). The structures typically have the missile some distance below ground, protected by a large "blast shelter, blast door" on top. They are usually connected, physically and/or electronically, to a missile launch control center. With the introduction of the Soviet UR-100 and the U.S. LGM-25C Titan II, Titan II missile series, underground silos changed in the 1960s. Both missile series introduced the use of hypergolic propellant, which could be stored in the missiles, allowing for rapid launches. Both countries' liquid-fueled missile systems were moved into underground silos. The introduc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Railcar-launched ICBM
A railcar-launched ICBM is an intercontinental ballistic missile that can be launched from a train. The first operational example, and the best-known, is the Soviet RT-23 Molodets. The United States planned and started development of an analogue, the Peacekeeper Rail Garrison, but abandoned the plan with the end of the Cold War. Similar systems were tested by China in 2016 and North Korea in 2021. Background ICBMs are large, and not easily mobile. For this reason, they are traditionally launched from fixed missile silos. However, keeping missiles in fixed positions leaves them vulnerable to a pre-emptive nuclear strike. For strategic deterrence, nuclear-armed nations seek to ensure mutually assured destruction, meaning that if one nation launches a nuclear first strike, the target nation would still be able to launch a retaliatory nuclear strike. Advantages Rail-mobile ICBM systems are harder to destroy than fixed positions, as they can travel anywhere along a nation's rail n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ICBM
An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons can also be delivered with varying effectiveness, but have never been deployed on ICBMs. Most modern designs support multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), allowing a single missile to carry several warheads, each of which can strike a different target. Russia, the United States, China, France, India, the United Kingdom, and North Korea are the only countries known to have operational ICBMs. Early ICBMs had limited precision, which made them suitable for use only against the largest targets, such as cities. They were seen as a "safe" basing option, one that would keep the deterrent force close to home where it would be difficult to attack. Attacks against military targets (especially hardened ones) still demanded th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vladimir Utkin
Vladimir Fyodorovich Utkin (russian: Владимир Фёдорович Уткин; 1923 – 2000) was a Russian engineer and rocket scientist in the Soviet Union. He developed railcar- launched ICBM RT-23 Molodets and other Soviet rockets. Early life Utkin was born in the village of Pustobor, Yerakhtursk area of Ryazan region, Russia. After graduation, he was drafted into the army. He fought in the Great Patriotic War, earning medals. He graduated from the Jet Armament department of Leningrad military engineering institute in 1952. He earned his Doctorate of Engineering in 1967. Career Utkin was sent to Special Design Bureau #586 in Dnepropetrovsk, where he worked on the organization of series production of first Soviet ballistic missiles R-1, R-2, R-5 designed by Sergey Korolev. After the foundation of Yuzhnoye design office, he worked as an engineer, senior engineer, group head, sector head, department head, Deputy and First Deputy Chief Designer. In 1971, he beca ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yuzhnoye Design Bureau
Pivdenne Design Office ( uk, Державне конструкторське бюро «Південне» ім. М. К. Янгеля , lit=State design bureau "Southern", named after M. K. Yangel, translit=Derzhavne konstruktorske biuro "Pivdenne" im. M. K. Yanhelia), located in Dnipro, Ukraine, is a designer of satellites and rockets, and formerly of Soviet intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), established by Mikhail Yangel. During Soviet times the bureau's OKB designation was OKB-586. The company is in close co-operation with the PA Pivdenmash multi-product machine-building company, also situated in Dnipro. Pivdenmash is the main manufacturer of the models developed by Pivdenne Design Office. Directors * 1954–1971 Mikhail Yangel * 1971–1991 Vladimir Utkin * 1991–2010 * 2010–2020 Products Current Ballistic missiles *Hrim-2 Orbital launch vehicles *Zenit rocket family **Zenit-2 **Zenit-2M **Zenit-3F **Zenit-3SL **Zenit-3SLB *Antares fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
MIRV
A multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle (MIRV) is an exoatmospheric ballistic missile payload containing several warheads, each capable of being aimed to hit a different target. The concept is almost invariably associated with intercontinental ballistic missiles carrying thermonuclear warheads, even if not strictly being limited to them. By contrast, a unitary warhead is a single warhead on a single missile. An intermediate case is the multiple reentry vehicle (MRV) missile which carries several warheads which are dispersed but not individually aimed. Only the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, China and India are currently confirmed to have deployed MIRV missile systems. Pakistan is developing MIRV missile systems. Israel is suspected to possess or be in the process of developing MIRVs. The first true MIRV design was the Minuteman III, first successfully tested in 1968 and introduced into actual use in 1970. The Minuteman III held three small ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
GRAU
The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated Russian acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of Armament and Munition of the Russian Armed Forces, a vice-minister of defense. The organization dates back to 1862 when it was established under the name Главное артиллерийское управление (ГАУ – GAU). The "R" from "rockets" was added to the title in 1960. In particular, the GRAU is responsible for assigning GRAU indices to Russian army munitions and equipment. Arsenals of the GRAU, according to Kommersant-Vlast in 2005, include the 60th at Kaluga, the 55th at Rzhev, the 75th at Serpukhov south of Moscow, (all three in the Moscow Military District) and the 80th at Gagarskiy, the 116th at Krasno-Oktyabrskiy and the 5th, all in the Volga–Urals Military District.Kommersant-Vlast, Vys Rossik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kiloton
TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. The is a unit of energy defined by that convention to be , which is the approximate energy released in the detonation of a tonne, metric ton (1,000 kilograms) of Trinitrotoluene, TNT. In other words, for each gram of TNT exploded, (or 4184 joules) of energy is released. This convention intends to compare the destructiveness of an event with that of conventional explosive materials, of which TNT is a typical example, although other conventional explosives such as dynamite contain more energy. Kiloton and megaton The "kiloton (of TNT)" is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 tera-, terajoules (). The "megaton (of TNT)" is a unit of energy equal to 4.184 peta-, petajoules (). The kiloton and megaton of TNT have traditionally been used to describe the energy output, and hence the destructive power, of a nuclear weapon. The TNT equivalent appears in various CTBT, n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 national republics; in practice, both its government and its economy were highly centralized until its final years. It was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, with the city of Moscow serving as its capital as well as that of its largest and most populous republic: the Russian SFSR. Other major cities included Leningrad (Russian SFSR), Kiev ( Ukrainian SSR), Minsk ( Byelorussian SSR), Tashkent (Uzbek SSR), Alma-Ata (Kazakh SSR), and Novosibirsk (Russian SFSR). It was the largest country in the world, covering over and spanning eleven time zones. The country's roots lay in the October Revolution of 1917, when the Bolsheviks, under the leadership of Vladimir Lenin, overthrew the Russian Provisional Gove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
START II
START II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) was a bilateral treaty between the United States and Russia on the Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms. It was signed by US President George H. W. Bush and Russian President Boris Yeltsin on 3 January 1993, banning the use of multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicles (MIRVs) on intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Hence, it is often cited as the De-MIRV-ing Agreement. It was ratified by the US Senate on 26 January 1996 with a vote of 87–4. Russia ratified START II on 14 April 2000, making it conditional on preserving the ABM Treaty. When the US withdrew from the ABM Treaty on June 13, 2002, Russia withdrew from START II one day later. Thus, START II never entered into effect. Instead, SORT came into effect, which reduced the strategic warheads count per country to 1,700–2,200. Impact of MIRV ICBMs using MIRVs are considered destabilizing because they put a premium on a first strike. These missil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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