| Country: |
Russian Federation |
| Alternate Name: |
Scrooge, RT-20 |
| Class: |
ICBM |
| Basing: |
Road mobile |
| Length: |
16.25 m |
| Diameter: |
1.84 m |
| Launch Weight: |
39000 kg |
| Payload: |
Single warhead, 545 or 1410 kg |
| Warhead: |
Nuclear, 550 kT or 1.5 MT |
| Propulsion: |
2-stage solid and liquid |
| Range: |
6000 km |
| Status: |
Terminated |
Details
Russian Designation: RT-20
The SS-X-15 was an intercontinental-range, road mobile, liquid and solid propellant ballistic missile. It was an experimental design intended to develop the first Soviet road mobile ICBM. It was planned on being road and railcar mobile, as well as a silo-launched version. However, only the road-mobile design was ever developed. It is the first Russian design to utilize solid propellant in the first stage and liquid in the second.
The SS-X-15 was designed for a Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicle deployment using a canister cold-launch technique. As a road-mobile design, it would be difficult to eliminate by US strategic or tactical forces, ensuring successful deployment in Europe in the advent of a war. Other advances included high-precision gyros, flotation gyro integrators and remote targeting. It was cancelled in 1969 or the early 1970s, after eight or nine flight tests, but there are reports saying it was deployed briefly with active training units. As the missile never left the experimental stage, the details are unverifiable.
The SS-X-15 was a land mobile design launched off a Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicle with an estimated range of 6,000 km (3,728 miles). It probably used an inertial guidance system. It is believed to have been 16.25 m long and 1.84 m wide with a launch weight of 39,000 kg. It had two single-warhead payload versions of 545 kg (550 kT) and 1,410 kg (1.5 MT). Its accuracy is unknown.(1)
Footnotes
- Duncan Lennox, Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 46 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2007), 588.
Russia Tests SLBM
September 3, 2003 :: The Moscow Times :: News
The Moscow Times reports that the Russian nuclear submarine Podolsk yesterday test launched one of its submarine launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) off Russia’s Pacific Coast, which then successfully hit its target in the Chizha firing range some 6,000km away.
Russia has several operational SLBMs aboard its submarines, all of which have intercontinental range. The Podolsk’s Delta III class of submarines typically carries 16 R-29R missiles, the Russian designation for a version of the SS-N-18, with a range which varies between 6,500 and 8,000km. (Article, Link)
» Global Security Newswire on SLBM test
» Missile details: SS-X-15
