| Country: |
Russian Federation |
| Alternate Name: |
Savage, RS-12 |
| Class: |
ICBM |
| Basing: |
Silo based |
| Length: |
21.20 m |
| Diameter: |
1.84 m |
| Launch Weight: |
51000 kg |
| Payload: |
Single warhead, 600 kg |
| Warhead: |
Nuclear 750 kT |
| Propulsion: |
3-stage solid |
| Range: |
10200 km |
| Status: |
Obsolete |
| In Service: |
1968-1995 |
Details
Russian Designation: RS-12
The SS-13 was an intercontinental-range, silo-based, solid propellant ballistic missile. It was the first deployed Soviet missile system to use solid propellant, a major technological breakthrough. It was assembled and sealed in its silo, decreasing the deterioration of the fuel and the missile. The use of solid fuel significantly prolongs the time period that a missile can remain fueled and launch ready. It decreases the maintenance of the missile, as less complicated equipment can be used, and increases the lifespan of the missile. It also increases the speed at which a missile can be launched and decreases the risk to the launch crew. Two versions of the SS-13 were developed, the Mod 1 and the Mod 2. It used an inertial guidance system.
The SS-13 used the prototype of the cold-launch system, a combination of steam and gas that pushes the missile out of the silo when the first stage of the missile is ignited. The hardened silo from which the SS-13 was launched allowed it to survive almost any attempt to destroy the missile before launch. The relatively low yield warhead and accuracy limited it to the destruction of cities and undefended areas.
Russian sources state that a heavier warhead of 1,400 kg could have been equipped and deployed at a decreased range of between 4,000 and 5,000 km (2,485 and 3,107 miles).(1) This would have allowed the missile to be deployed at a limited range but with a significantly higher yield nuclear warhead. This could theoretically be equipped with as much as a 5 MT warhead, and was large enough to be deployed against US silo-based missiles. However, this would have significantly reduced the number of strategic sites within range.
The SS-13 Mod 1 had a maximum range of 10,200 km (6,338 miles) and a payload of 600 kg. It carried a single nuclear warhead with a 750 kT yield and could deliver it with an accuracy of 1,300 m CEP. It had a launch weight of 51,000 kg. It used a three-stage solid propellant engine with a length of 21.2 m and width of 1.84 m at the bottom.
Development of the SS-13 began in 1961, with flight tests beginning in 1966. The SS-13 Mod 1 entered service in the Soviet Union in 1968. The SS-13 Mod 1 and 2 reached a peak deployment of 60 missiles in 1974, a much smaller scale than many of its counterparts due to its relatively low payload. Following the first Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), only twenty SS-13 missiles were operational by December of 1994, and by July 1996 all had been dismantled, and were replaced by SS-25 Topol missiles.(2)
Footnotes
- Pavel Podvig, ed., Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces (Cambridge: The MIT Press, 2001).
- Duncan Lennox, Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 572-573.
