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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


RT-23 / SS-24 SCALPEL

Comparable in size and concept to the US Peacekeeper, the SS-24 is cold-launched ICBM capable of carrying 10 warheads. The missile is deployed both as rail-mobile and silo-based. The silo-based SS-24 was intended to replace the SS-19 Stilletto in the Russian strategic inventory. The SS-24 rail missile system is subject to elimination under the provisions of the START-II Treaty.

The RT-23UTTh is a 3-stage solid-propellant missile with a constant diameter body. The first stage of the silo-based missile uses a rotating nozzle, as compared to the fixed nozzle partially inserted in the motor combustion chamber of the railway-based version. The engines of the second and third stages deploy extendable nozzles during flight to increase the motor's specific impulse without increasing the overall dimensions of the missile. First stage flight control is attained through deflection of the sustainer nozzle, whereas the second and third stage by deflecting the combat stage and by fairing-mounted aerodynamic vanes.

Both silo-based and rail-mobile missiles use an onboard digital computer for autonomous inertial guidance system. The silo-based system uses a two-package block of control instruments made of radiation-resistant electronic elements. The railway-based missile has only one-package block of control instruments.

According to data of Russia’s Defense Ministry, the first missile regiment of the railway-based missile complex was placed on combat duty on October 20, 1987.

The combat missile train is a railway echelon consisting of two-three locomotives and special railway wagons resembling refrigerator and passenger rail cars, which accommodated transport and launch containers with intercontinental ballistic missiles, launch command posts, technological and technical systems, security means, personnel and life-support systems.

The works to develop the combat railway missile complex with the RS-22 (NATO reporting name: SS-24 Scalpel) missile began in the mid-1970s at the Yuzhnoye design bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. These complexes were assembled in Ukraine as well. Overall, three missile divisions were deployed to include 12 train regiments. All of them were armed with 36 missiles, each of them carrying 10 powerful nuclear warheads.

The 10 warheads [with an individual yield of 550 KT], that a RT-23 is capable of carrying each contain a post-boost vehicle with a guidance/control system and a propulsion system are inside the nose cone. The guidance/control system provides a CEP of 500 meters according to unofficial Russian estimates, which designates the missile as hard-target-kill weapon. The missile is deployed in a transport-launching canister from which it is launched through the mortar start technique. To conduct a railway launch the sliding roof of the car opens, the container is erected and the missile is launched with the help of a solid propellant gas generator. The missile can be launched from any point of the route.

The lengths of the two versions of the missile were determined by the dimensions of the silo or the railway launcher. The silo-based missile must then use a nose cone tip flap that is activated when the launch is initiated while the railroad based missile has a folded nose cone that is extended when the launch is conducted. Flight design tests of the rocket took place at the 53rd NIIP MO (now the 1st GIK MO) in several stages. From January to April 1984, launches were carried out from a railway platform of an experimental version of this rocket, the RS-22B. Then, from February 1985 to September 1988, test launches of the RS-22A and RS-22V missiles were carried out. In total, more than 40 launches of RS-22 missiles were carried out at the cosmodrome.

The US Defense Department stated in September 1991 that production had officially ceased with a total of approximately 90 missiles deployed. A total of 46 silo-based RT-23UTTh missiles located in Ukraine were phased out and dismantled in compliance with the provisions of the START-I treaty. They were denuclearised and their warheads have since been transferred to Russia. By 1994 most of the rail-mobile systems remained in garrison due to lack of funding. By April 1997 10 silo-based and 36 railway based RT23-UTTh missiles were still deployed on Russian territory. Following Russian ratification of the START-2 treaty in early 2000, all RT-23 UTTh missiles became subject to dismantling.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union in 1991, most design and production facilities for the SS-24 belonged to Ukraine. Ukraine had no interest in continuing to produce these ICBMs, and the production line was closed in 1995.

After the conclusion of international agreements on the reduction of strategic weapons, strategic complexes with missiles 15Zh60 and 15Zh61 of the design of the KBYU fell under the article on mutual reductions, and all were withdrawn from the arsenal. On the territory of Ukraine, 15Kh60 missiles were decommissioned and disposed of, and rocket launchers of rockets were blown up.

In August 2002 the Strategic Missile Forces chief, Colonel General Nikolai Solovtsov, announced that the military will keep one division of the train-mounted missiles. One division includes up to five trains, each carrying three missiles, and each missile carries 10 warheads. Russia was supposed to scrap all its RT-23 missiles under START II, but Russia withdrew from the treaty in June after the U.S. abrogated the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

As the warranty period for the operation of RS-22 missiles and the railway complexes expired, a decision was taken to liquidate them. On August 12, 2005, the last combat railway missile complex was withdrawn from combat duty.

It had been suggested that these rail-mobile land-based missiles, which have been parked in their garrisons, may be placed back on patrol in response to American missile defense and associated arms control initiatives though this has never been officially confirmed.




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