R-9 Desna
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The R-9 (
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-8 Sasin) was a two-stage
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 ...
of 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 ...
, in service from 1964 to 1976.


History

Designed in 1959 and first tested in 1961, the R-9 was a great improvement over previous Soviet missile designs. The missile, capable of delivering a payload about up to to an accuracy of , was not only very accurate, but was also far more tactically useful to the Soviet Union. Previous Soviet designs, fuelled with cryogenic
LOX Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an appli ...
and
kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning "wax", and was regi ...
, commonly took hours to fuel and launch. The R-9, on the other hand, could be launched 20 minutes from the time a launch order was given. NPO "Electropribor" (
Kharkiv Kharkiv ( uk, wikt:Харків, Ха́рків, ), also known as Kharkov (russian: Харькoв, ), is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city and List of hromadas of Ukraine, municipality in Ukraine.Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...
) designed the missile's control system.Krivonosov, Khartron: Computers for rocket guidance systems
/ref> First put into active service in 1964, the R-9 carried a 1.65 to 5 Mt
warhead A warhead is the forward section of a device that contains the explosive agent or toxic (biological, chemical, or nuclear) material that is delivered by a missile, rocket, torpedo, or bomb. Classification Types of warheads include: * Explosiv ...
. Though the last Soviet missile to use cryogenic propellant, this design is one of the most widely deployed ICBMs to use cryogenic fuel. OKB-456 (later renamed to
NPO Energomash NPO Energomash “V. P. Glushko” is a major Russian rocket engine manufacturer. The company primarily develops and produces liquid propellant rocket engines. Energomash originates from the Soviet design bureau OKB-456, which was founded in 1 ...
) developed the initial stage of the two-stage missile, a four-chambered closed cycle design. The second stage, connected by
truss A truss is an assembly of ''members'' such as beams, connected by ''nodes'', that creates a rigid structure. In engineering, a truss is a structure that "consists of two-force members only, where the members are organized so that the assembl ...
es to the first stage (much like the modern
Soyuz rocket The Soyuz (russian: Союз, meaning "union", GRAU index 11A511) was a Soviet expendable carrier rocket designed in the 1960s by OKB-1 and manufactured by State Aviation Plant No. 1 in Kuybyshev, Soviet Union. It was commissioned to launch ...
) was also four-chambered, but utilized an open cycle design with vacuum optimized
combustion chambers A combustion chamber is part of an internal combustion engine in which the fuel/air mix is burned. For steam engines, the term has also been used for an extension of the firebox which is used to allow a more complete combustion process. Interna ...
more suited to very high altitudes. This rocket engine was a product of the OKB-154 design team. Guidance of the warhead, like most ICBMs before and after it, was totally
inertial In classical physics and special relativity, an inertial frame of reference (also called inertial reference frame, inertial frame, inertial space, or Galilean reference frame) is a frame of reference that is not undergoing any acceleration. ...
save the final ten seconds before detonation of the warhead, which was controlled by a radio-altimeter correction system.


Deployment

The initial design called for a mobile surface-launched system, but a changing
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 ...
situation saw a silo-based R-9 developed in tandem with the ground-based system. The ground-based system, however, never achieved the hoped-for mobility of the initial design parameters. In total, three
launch sites This article constitutes a list of rocket launch sites. Some of these sites are known as spaceports or cosmodromes. A single rocket launch is sufficient for inclusion in the table, as long as the site is properly documented through a reference. M ...
were constructed, but only two were used. "Desna-V", the silo launch area, consisted of three underground silos with the ability to launch the R-9 within 20 minutes, and the ability to store the missile in an unfueled ready condition for one year. "Valley", the first of two above-ground launch sites, was mostly automated and could fire the R-9 within 20 minutes as well, and repeat the process within two and a half hours. The final launch site, "Desna-N", was also an above-ground site, but was never stocked with R-9s as the site was not automated and needed at least two hours to launch a single missile. In 1971 the above-ground R-9 launch sites were decommissioned, and by 1976 all R-9 missiles had been decommissioned.


NATO reporting name

SS-8 Sasin is a
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 ...
that was mistakenly applied to two different
Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
missile systems. The designation was accidentally applied to the R-26 when an example of that missile was revealed in a parade. However, the R-26 program had already been cancelled and no new designation was given by NATO for the R-26 once the error was discovered.


1963 fire

On October 24, 1963, an R-9 missile was being prepared for launch in a silo from Site 70 at
Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome ( kk, Байқоңыр ғарыш айлағы, translit=Baiqoñyr ğaryş ailağy, ; russian: Космодром Байконур, translit=Kosmodrom Baykonur, ) is a spaceport in an area of southern Kazakhstan leased to R ...
. The 11-man launch crew did not realize that an oxygen leak from the missile's fuel system had raised the partial oxygen pressure to 32% (the maximum allowed was 21%). The crew was descending to the eighth level in a lift when a spark from an electrical panel started a fire in the nearly pure oxygen atmosphere, killing seven and destroying the silo. The disaster occurred exactly three years after the
Nedelin disaster The Nedelin catastrophe or Nedelin disaster was a launch pad accident that occurred on 24 October 1960 at Baikonur test range (of which Baikonur Cosmodrome is a part), during the development of the Soviet R-16 ICBM. As a prototype of the m ...
. October 24 became known as Baikonur's "Black Day", and to this day no launches are attempted on that date.


Data

* Fuel: kerosene + oxygen. * Control system by NII-885 of N.A.Pilyugin and M.S.Ryazanski. * Gyroscopes by NII-944 of V.I.Kuznetsov. * Launcher by GSKB "Spetsmash" of V.P.Barmin. * First stage engine RD-111 (8D716) by OKB-456 of V.P.Glushko. * Second stage engine RO-9 (8D715) by OKB-154 of S.A.Kosberg. * 1.65 Mt ("light") and 2.3 Mt ("heavy") warheads. * Tested at "ground No 51" at NIIP-5 (Baikonur/Tura-Tam) until crash in October 1962. * Serial production at facility No. 1 in Kuibyshev. * Deployed 2 regiments of ground based missiles at Kozelsk, 1 regiment of ground based missiles at Plesetsk, 1 regiment of underground silo missiles at Kozelsk.


Operators

; : The
Strategic Rocket Forces 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 ...
were the only operator of the R-9.


Footnotes


External links


The SS-8 Controversy
Discusses the CIA's bewilderment about the new missile, with one camp interpreting it as a 100 megaton weapon, and other analysts interpreting it as a much smaller missile. {{Navboxes , list = {{Russian and Soviet missiles, SSM {{Russian and Soviet military designation sequences Cold War intercontinental ballistic missiles of the Soviet Union R-009 Military equipment introduced in the 1960s