15P182 Osina-RV
Russia is developing new missile systems that are no less effective than the Avangard nuclear gliders and the hypersonic Oreshnik missile, the commander of the Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) has said. General Sergey Karakaev made the remarks on 16 December 2024 in an interview with Krasnaya Zvezda, the official newspaper of the Russian military, on the 65th anniversary of the creation of the SMF.
According to Karakaev, Russia’s intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), such as the Avangard and Oreshnik, are equipped with fundamentally new types of warheads that are virtually unstoppable. Work is also underway on testing and introducing into combat the new Sarmat and Osina strategic missile systems. “And these are far from all the examples,” Karakaev said, adding that Russia is in the final stages of developing a wide range of equally effective missile systems, but “the time has not yet come to talk about them.”
“Osina-RV,” which can be launched from both mobile and silo launchers, is reportedly a modernized version of the Yars-M system. "Osina" is Russian for European Aspen, or just Aspen, while the 15P182 designation is for the launcher system, hence the "P" in the designation. Flight tests of the Osina-RV were supposed to take place throughout 2021 and 2022. In June 2021, TASS agency reported that Russia tested its newest ICBM, without mentioning its name. However, as of 2024 it was unclear whether they took place.
Mobile missile systems in service with the Russian Strategic Missile Forces (RVSN) play a key role in carrying out a retaliatory nuclear strike. Colonel General Sergei Karakayev, commander of the RVSN, shared his views on the advantages of land-based systems in an interview with the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper 16 December 2024. He noted that in the Strategic Missile Forces there is a roughly equal ratio of deployed carriers between the mobile and stationary groups. In the future, it is planned to maintain this balance to ensure the fulfillment of all nuclear deterrence tasks, as well as to carry out retaliatory and counter actions. "We intend to maintain the two-component structure of the missile group, which will include stationary missile systems with high power and readiness for immediate use. Missile divisions equipped with mobile missile systems will be an important tool for inflicting unacceptable damage on the enemy in a retaliatory strike, thanks to their maneuverability and survivability, especially in the context of the deployment of the American missile defense system," the commander emphasized. As reported by the Voenno-boltovoy Telegram channel with reference to open documentation on the object of state environmental expertise, on September 5, 2019, state contract No. 1922187308021452210002616 was concluded for the Osina-RV R&D project to create a new strategic missile system 15P182, for which JSC Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering (MIT) Corporation acts as the lead developer. The basis for the development of the 15P182 missile system are the Resolution of the Government of the Russian Federation of December 26, 2018 and the tactical and technical assignment of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation of February 17, 2019.
The 15P182 missile system is being created as a modernization of the existing versions of the Yars-M combat missile system with indexes 15P180 and 15P181. The documentation for the R&D "Osina-RV" indicated that the need to create the 15P182 missile system is determined by a number of political, military-technical and economic factors, including:
- objectively increased requirements for the range and quality of target task solutions in the interests of ensuring the defense capability and security of the state;
- technical depreciation of the systems in operation and their components, right down to the element base.
Compared with the existing systems, the expected effect of the creation and operation of the 15P182 system is:
- an increase in the level of solving individual problems in accordance with modern requirements due to the use of new design solutions, technologies, element base, software and methodological support;
- an expansion of the range of problems solved due to the inclusion of additional problems and the integration of problems solved by the predecessor systems;
- improvement of the operational characteristics of the system;
- achieving parity in the level of solving target problems with similar foreign products.
The fixed launcher of the 15P182 missile system provides for the use of several modifications of the silo launcher (SL), obtained as a result of the re-equipment of launchers of existing systems decommissioned in accordance with the contractual obligations of the Russian Federation. The created complex must ensure the ability to deliver various payload options to the trajectory. The tactical and technical assignment provides for the widespread use of proven technical solutions, units, systems and assemblies of solid-fuel rockets and ground equipment of missile systems.
Composition of the 15P182 complex (at the flight test stage):
- flight article for delivering various payload options to the trajectory;
- stationary control post type 15V242;
- mobile communication complex consisting of units on the Kamaz-6350 chassis;
- transport and loading unit, consisting of an active semi-trailer with a KZKT-74284 tractor (probably unit 15T414);
- technical complex;
- stationary launcher;
- security system;
- training facilities.
Flight tests of the 15P182 missile complex will be held at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in 2021-2022. The flight test program includes at least two launches along the Mirny-Kura route. Presumably, the first launch as part of the flight tests will take place no earlier than August 2021. Flight tests of the 15P182 complex were planned to be carried out in a stationary version.
The 15P765-35 silo at the Yuzhnaya launch pad will be upgraded to the 15P782-35 silo, the upgrade will be carried out using resource-saving technology with the preservation of the protective roof, barbette, drum, shaft with bottom and the reuse of most of the launcher equipment - protective roof drives, shock absorption system, elevators and other equipment.
The minor amount of modifications to the launcher means that any of the existing missile regiments of the Strategic Missile Forces with missile systems developed by MIT can subsequently be rearmed with the 15P182 system: from the already obsolete Topol-M to the newest Yars-M, whose testing was supposed to be completed in 2022.
Over two years passed since the alleged tests of the Osina-RV product, but new information about this project has not yet been received. It is possible that, as was previously the case with Yars-M, the design organization continues to work on this project and cannot yet talk about its successes.
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