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Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)


RT-2PM - SS-25 SICKLE

RT-2PMThe RT-2 is a road mobile 3-stage, single warhead ICBM. Its 29.5 meter length and 1.7meter diameter are approximately the same size and shape as the U.S. Minuteman ICBM. It has a throw-weight of 1000 kg and carries a single warhead with a yield of 550 Kt and accuracy (CEP) of 900m according to Russian sources [as opposed to 300m according to Western sources].

The mobile Topol was supposed to be a response to the increasing accuracy of American ICBMs. It was necessary to create a complex with increased survivability, achieved not by building reliable shelters, but by creating vague ideas for the enemy about the location of the missile. It was assumed that the Topol group would be significant in number.

Its road mobile capability gave the SS-25 an extremely high rate of survivability. It can fire from field deployment sites or through sliding roof garage bases. The SS-25 joined operational Soviet SRF regiments in 1985. A total area of approximately 190,000 square kilometers could be required to deploy a force consisting of 500 road-mobile SS-25 ICBMs. Mobile units require a much higher number of personnel for maintenance and operation than fixed systems. In turn, the SS-25 was significantly more costly to maintain and operate than silo launched systems.

The three stage solid propellant RT-2PM Topol became the first Soviet mobile ICBM to be successfully deployed. It was deployed after two decades of unsuccessful attempts by different design bureaus to create a reliable mobile launch system. It emerged from the same line of development as mobile missiles such as the SS-X-16 Temp-2S and the 'SS-20 Pioneer, and was deployed as a replacement for the widely deployed SS-11 SEGO.

All three stages are made of composite materials. First stage operation the flight control is implemented through four aerodynamic and four jet vanes. Four similar trellised aerodynamic surfaces serve for stabilization. During the second and third stage of flight gas is injected into the diverging part of the nozzle for flight control.

The product uses an autonomous inertial control system for a ballistic missile, which provides automatic pre-launch preparation and launch, missile flight control in the active part of the trajectory, carrying out regulations and periodic checks. The control system has an additional protection system against the effects of radiation from a nuclear explosion. The improved accuracy characteristics of the command instrumentation complex, as well as the use of a more advanced guidance method, made it possible to ensure high accuracy of the missile hit, which is not inferior to the accuracy of US ICBMs of a similar class.

The missile is operated in a transport and launch container (TLC) / Transporter Erector Launcher (TEL), which serves not only to protect the missile from external influences, but also provides it with the required temperature and humidity conditions. TPK is placed on the seven-axle wheeled chassis MAZ-7917 (15U168) [on the first samples of the PGRK on MAZ-7912 (15U128.1)], the development of the Minsk plant of heavy wheeled tractors (under the leadership of the general designer Chvyalev V.P.), which is also mounted units and systems that ensure transportation, maintenance of the required degree of combat readiness, preparation for launch and missile launch.

In addition, the container is used as a guide during a mortar launch of a rocket, in which, using a powder pressure accumulator, the rocket is ejected from the transport and launch container to a height of 20-25 m, after which the main engine of the first stage of the rocket is launched. Composite materials and a container were developed and manufactured at the Central Research Institute of Special Machine Building (Khotkovo, Moscow Region) under the guidance of V.D. Protasov.

The chassis incorporates jacks, gas and hydraulic drives and cylinders, with a power of several hundred tons, for jacking and leveling of the launcher, speeding up (combat) and slowing down (maintaining) elevation of the container with the missile in the vertical position. The TEL is accompanied by a Mobile command post, carrying support facilities mounted on cross-country 4-axle chassis with unified vans.

The complex is equipped with an onboard inertial navigation system which gives the TEL group the capability to conduct the launch independently from its field deployment sites. This topo-geodesic support and navigation subsystem, created by the "Signal" Research Institute, provides a quick and highly precise tie-in of the launcher in a field position and enables its crew to carry out missile launches from any combat patrol route point. The launch can also be carried out at regimental bases from the aforementioned garrison garage.

A missile launch can be carried out from field positions, from any point of the combat patrol route, prepared in advance in geodetic terms and from special garage-type structures 15U135 "Krona" with a retractable roof, which are located at combat starting positions (at permanent deployment points) in an amount equal to the number of autonomous launchers.




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