Designed to destroy strategic targets at intercontinental ranges. Adopted for service by the Navy in 1983.
The missile is installed on the strategic missile-carrying submarines (project 941) having a basic load of 20 missiles.
The missile involves a number of new designs:
- rocket engines burn high-energy solid propellant and are made of new structural materials;
- the control system uses the principle of generalized astro-correction;
- high-velocity small reentry vehicles of increased specific power are used;
- a shock-mounted launch system provides for missile storage, transportation and launch;
- the ground support equipment mounted on railway cars allows transloading of missiles without cranes and the loading devices provide safe operation of missiles.
The missile includes a three-stage solid-propellant carrier, a shock-mounted missile launch system (SMLS) and a MIRVed warhead. The warhead comprises ten reentry vehicles, control system equipment and a liquid-propellant rocket engine allowing individual targeting of reentry vehicles.
In the launch tube the missile is kept suspended and supported by the launch pad (bearing ring) placed in the upper part of the launch tube. The SMLS damps the missile, seals the launch tube and ensures missile safety in the submarine, allowing dipping of the submarine to a great depth with the open launch tube cover. All load-bearing elements of the missile needed for its operation both on the ground and aboard a submarine, except for the middle support belt, are located on the SMLS and in the tail section, which are jettisoned at the initial phase of flight just after the missile escapes the water.
The missile is ejected from a “dry” launch tube by the cartridge pressure accumulator placed on the launch tube bottom in the 1st stage engine nozzle. At missile liftoff the special solid-propellant charges located on the SMLS provide for protection in the form of a gas-jet cavern that considerably reduces the hydrodynamic loads acting on the missile. The command to start the 1st stage engine is generated at the instant the missile leaves the launch tube. If the 1st stage engine fails to start up, the missile, after its appearance on the water surface, is moved away from the submarine for the safety purposes. The launch system is separated from the missile in flight by special engines and is also moved away.
The instrument section covered by a dome is located in the missile nose. It is joined with the dispensing stage through a flange. They both form a MIRVed warhead. The instrument section consists of two sealed sections divided by an intermediate bottom: a section comprising a free gyro with an astro-sighting device covered with a dome jettisoned in flight and a control system instrumentation arranged on a shock-mounted frame.
The dispensing stage is joined with the instrument section. It contains reentry vehicles. A dual-mode liquid-propellant dispensing propulsion system and separable 3rd stage engine are mounted on the dispensing stage body.
| Basic characteristics |
| Mass, t: |
|
| Maximum firing range |
intercontinental |
| Warhead |
MIRVed |
| Number of reentry vehicles |
10 |
| Control system |
astroinertial |
| Number of stages |
3 |
| Missile length, m |
16.0 |
| Diameter of 1st and 2nd stages, m |
2.4 |
| Propellant |
solid |
|
