The RT-2 was an

intercontinental ballistic missile 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 c ...

deployed by the

Soviet Union 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 ...

, which was in service from December 1968 until 1976. It was assigned the

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform manne ...

SS-13 Savage and carried the GRAU index 8K98. Designed by

OKB-1 PAO S. P. Korolev Rocket and Space Corporation Energia (russian: Ракетно-космическая корпорация «Энергия» им. С. П. Королёва, Raketno-kosmicheskaya korporatsiya "Energiya" im. S. P. Korolyov ...

, about 60 were built by 1972.

History

The RT-2 was the first solid-propellant ICBM in Soviet service, and was a development of the earlier RT-1 series. It was a three-stage inertially-guided missile comparable to the American Minuteman missile. It was armed with a single 600 kiloton warhead and was silo-launched, although a rail-based version was contemplated by Soviet planners. It was deployed in the Yoshkar-Ola missile field. The Soviets used the two upper stages of the RT-2 to develop the

RT-15 The RT-15 was a mobile theatre ballistic missile deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was assigned the NATO reporting name SS-14 Scamp (alternately the SS-14 Scapegoat) and carried the GRAU index 8K96. The RT-15 was an early Sovi ...

mobile

IRBM An intermediate-range ballistic missile (IRBM) is a ballistic missile with a range of 3,000–5,500 km (1,864–3,418 miles), between a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) and an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Classifying b ...

system. The

RT-2PM Topol The RT-2PM Topol (russian: РТ-2ПМ Тополь ("Poplar"); NATO reporting name SS-25 Sickle; GRAU designation: 15Ж58 ("15Zh58"); START I designation: RS-12M Topol) is a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile designed in the Soviet Union a ...

is supposedly a modernized version of the RT-2

Operations

The RT-2 was capable of delivering a class payload to a maximum operational range of approximately 10,000 km (5,500 nautical miles)Defense Intelligence Agency: "SS-13 Ballistic Missile System", 8 November 1973, DIA Task No. T74-10-03

Command and Control

A single

launch control center The Rocco A. Petrone Launch Control Center (commonly known as just the Launch Control Center or LCC) is a four-story building at NASA's Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, Florida, used to manage launches of launch vehicles from Kennedy Space ...

(LCC) monitored numbers of launchers. The hardened and dispersed silo concept increased system survivability and provided steady environmental controls from the solid-propellant motors. Headquarters

RVSN The Strategic Rocket Forces of the Russian Federation or the Strategic Missile Forces of the Russian Federation (RVSN RF; russian: Ракетные войска стратегического назначения Российской Фед� ...

exercised normal control of the RT-2 missile force, through an intermediate RVSN Army and launch complex headquarters (HCC). A launch complex consisted of an HCC and several LCCs, monitoring numerous underground launchers.

Flight test history

Test Launches

General Characteristics

* Length: 20,000 mm (65.6 ft) * Diameter: 1,700 mm (5.57 ft) * Launch Weight: 34,000 kg (33.46 tons) * Guidance: inertial guidance * Propulsion: solid, three-stage * Warhead: 600kt nuclear * Range:

Operators

; : The Strategic Rocket Forces were the only operator of the RT-2.

Photo gallery

File:RT-2 maximum range coverage of United States.PNG, RT-2 coverage of United States File:RT-2 possible launch facility configuration.PNG, RT-2 launch facility configuration File:RT-2 typical deployment complex.PNG, RT-2 missile complex configuration

References

* Hogg, Ian (2000). ''Twentieth-Century Artillery''. Friedman/Fairfax Publishers.
S.P.Korolev RSC Energia Rocket RT-2P

External links

{{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 Cold War intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Soviet Union RT-002 Arsenal Plant (Saint Petersburg) products Military equipment introduced in the 1960s