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 weapo ...

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 nationa ...

, 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 man ...

SS-13 Savage and carried the

GRAU index 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 ...

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 The LGM-30 Minuteman is an American land-based intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Air Force Global Strike Command. , the LGM-30G Minuteman III version is the only land-based ICBM in service in the United States and re ...

. It was armed with a single 600

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 ...

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: * Expl ...

and was silo-launched, although a rail-based version was contemplated by Soviet planners. It was deployed in the

Yoshkar-Ola Yoshkar-Ola ( Mari and russian: Йошкар-Ола) is the capital city of the Mari El Republic, Russia. Yoshkar-Ola means “red city” in Mari and was formerly known as Tsaryovokokshaysk () before 1919, as Krasnokokshaysk () between 1919 an ...

missile field. The Soviets used the two upper stages of the RT-2 to develop the RT-15 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 (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 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 An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors ( accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity ...

* Propulsion: solid, three-stage * Warhead: 600kt nuclear * Range:

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 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