The RT-15 was a mobile

theatre ballistic missile A theatre ballistic missile (TBM) is any ballistic missile with a range less than , used against targets " in-theatre". Its range is thus between that of tactical and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. The term is a relatively new one, encompa ...

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 ...

during the

Cold War The Cold War is a term commonly used to refer to a period of geopolitical tension between the United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies, the Western Bloc and the Eastern Bloc. The term '' cold war'' is used because the ...

. 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-14 Scamp (alternately the SS-14 Scapegoat) and carried the

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 ...

index 8K96. The RT-15 was an early Soviet attempt to develop a road-mobile

. It was intended to be capable of being launched from both sea and ground sites and had a maximum range of 2000–2500 km. The weapon's 'reaction time' in the normal readiness condition after its arrival at the launch site would have been 20 to 30 minutes and the 'holding time' at peak readiness (with a time of two to ten minutes before the missile could be launched) would be about a day. RT-15 was developed by the

S. P. Korolev design bureau 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 ...

(OKB-1) on the basis of the second and third stages of the

RT-2 The RT-2 was an intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the Soviet Union, which was in service from December 1968 until 1976. It was assigned the NATO reporting name SS-13 Savage and carried the GRAU index 8K98. Designed by OKB-1, about 60 ...

ICBM. The missile was carried on a T-10 heavy tank chassis in a sealed container with a striking resemblance to the US

Atlas D The SM-65 Atlas was the first operational intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) developed by the United States and the first member of the Atlas rocket family. It was built for the U.S. Air Force by the Convair Division of General Dyna ...

ICBM. After missile erection, the container split longitudinally and was withdrawn. The missile was developed in the early 1960s and was first seen on a mobile land launcher during May 1965. Six missiles were experimentally deployed with the

50th Independent Missile Battalion 5 (five) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number, and cardinal number, following 4 and preceding 6, and is a prime number. It has attained significance throughout history in part because typical humans have five digits on eac ...

at the village of Lesnaya in

Belorussia Belarus,, , ; alternatively and formerly known as Byelorussia (from Russian ). officially the Republic of Belarus,; rus, Республика Беларусь, Respublika Belarus. is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by R ...

. The system was refused acceptance for general service, on the grounds that the launch support electronics was too bulky and fragile. The missiles at Lesnaya were decommissioned during March 1970.

Variants

* RT-25 modernized derivative * RT-15M (RSM-25) MRBM and SLBM

Operators

;

External links

Global Security: RT-15
Theatre ballistic missiles Cold War missiles of the Soviet Union Arsenal Plant (Saint Petersburg) products Military equipment introduced in the 1960s {{Missile-stub

Variants

Operators

See also

External links