R-36M Voyevoda (Governor)/
RS-20V, RS-20VP /
SS-18 SATAN - Program

The stationary-based missile system 15P018 was created in the USSR in the 1970s. The intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) of the third generation was a continuation of the US response to a sharp increase in the number of warheads (BB) in the groupings of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles (SSBMs), increasing the combat and operational characteristics of missile systems (RK ) for strategic purposes. The development of the missile system was carried out at the Yuzhnoye State Design Bureau named after Academician M.K. Yangel (Dnepropetrovsk) under the guidance of Academician Utkin V.F. in accordance with the Decree of the Central Committee and Council of Ministers of the USSR of 08/16/1976 as part of the implementation of the program for improving and increasing the combat effectiveness of the previously developed RK 15P014. Flight tests of the R-36M UTTKh missile were carried out at the 5th Research Institute of the Ministry of Defense (Baikonur) from 10/31/1977 to 11/27/1979. A total of 62 launches were carried out, of which 56 were successful. The actual flight reliability of the rocket, taking into account improvements at the stage of flight tests and ensuring the quality of manufacture, is 0.965.

At the very beginning of the development, a real storm broke out - this project had a lot of opponents. Among the many scientists and chief designers, the first opponent, as always, was the General Designer Academician V. Chelomei : "I'll take off my hat if the rocket flies." (The rocket flew, but Chelomei forgot about his promise.) Chelomey was not alone. Even Yangelya's longtime associate , Chief Designer of mine launchers E. Rudyak, and he argued the inconsistency of the project: "Throwing an apple, like an apple, with a weight of more than two hundred tons is the purest absurdity." Yangel translated this "absurdity" into reality. True, he had to part with individual skeptics, including the beautiful designer E. Rudyak . "I did not know that Yangel was capable of doing miracles," Yevgeny Georgievich later frankly confessed, "I never assumed that this person who had suffered three infarctions possesses such strength and courage when he defends the new technique."

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on 05 November 2008 cancelled the order to disband three regiments of the 28th Guards Missile Division of Russia's missile forces in Kozelsk, Kaluga Region. Steps to disband it began in 2007. It includes five missile regiments, or 46 silo launchers of SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

R-36M2 (15A18M, RS-20V) "Voevoda" was adopted by the Strategic Missile Force of the Soviet Union on August 11, 1988. In the West received the name SS-18 mod 5/6 Satan ("Satan"). It was created under the guidance of the outstanding Soviet designers Mikhail Yangel and Vladimir Utkin on the basis of the liquid two-stage monoblock ICBM of the second generation P-36, which was adopted in 1967.

By one report, in 2003 some 30 RS-18 missiles were bought by Russia from Ukraine, where they were stored in a dismantled state. Now they can be considered as "new" and put on permanent duty until 2030. This transaction is not widely attested. U.S. and Russian arsenals currently conform to limits set by the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction (START) Treaty; a second START treaty - START II - signed in 1993 was never ratified in the same form by both sides. The START II treaty required Russia to destroy each deployed SS-18 under the watchful eyes of US inspectors. But it did not call for destruction of warehoused spare and test SS-18 boosters, which by one 1994 estimate could number well over 100. Unlike all previous nuclear arms control pacts, the Moscow Treaty does not limit delivery vehicles, only warheads. Neither side is obligated to dismantle any of the missiles, bombers or submarines that could deliver strategic warheads.

The development of the two stage heavy liquid-propellant ICBM R-36M intended to replace the R-36 SS-9 Scarp was accepted on 02 September 1969. The preliminary design was completed in December 1969 by the Yuzhnoye design bureau. The system was designed by the M. K. Yangel OKB Yuzhnoye at Dnepropetrovsk (Ukraine) during 1966-1972. Testing began in November 1972. It was deployed in January 1975 and integrated with the weapons arsenal in December 1975.

The tests of R-36M2 began in March 1986. By the way, the very first launch was unsuccessful: after the exit from the mine, the propulsion engine did not start, the missile collapsed onto the launcher, completely destroying it. The first successful launch took place a year later at the test site of the Ministry of Defense in Baikonur. A total of 26 test launches were carried out, of which 19 were successful.

By 09/18/1979 three missile regiments in position areas (PR) of missile divisions stationed in Russia near the cities of Dombarovsky (regiment commander - Lieutenant Colonel Zverev V.I.) and Uzhur (regiment commander - Lieutenant Colonel Sidorenko G.S.) and in Kazakhstan near the city Zhangiztobe (commander of the regiment - Colonel Kanevsky G.M.), began to carry out combat duty on the new rocket technology. The State Commission chaired by Colonel-General F.P. Tonkikh On 12/17/1980, the missile system with the R-36M UTTKh missile (Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 1180-400) was put into service. As of 1987, 308 R-36M UTTKh ICBMs were deployed in the PR of the missile divisions stationed near the cities of Dombarovsky, Kartaly, Zhangiztobe, Aleisk, Uzhur and Derzhavinsk.

After the collapse of the USSR Dnepropetrovsk plant stopped the production of "Voevod", and according to the terms of START-1, 154 missiles were disposed of in Russia. The rest were removed from combat duty as their warranty periods expired. According to Viktor Litovkin, the military observer of the TASS, the R-36M2 should have lasted 20 years, and already more than 30 have passed - they were made so qualitatively. "Specialists of Strategic Missile Forces together with representatives of the company regularly carried out the necessary routine maintenance on them, and even after the masters of Yuzhmash ceased to come from Dnepropetrovsk because of the political demarche of the current Ukrainian leadership, our missilemen very carefully monitored the readiness of each Voevoda, By the way, the problem with the technical and routine maintenance of "Satan", according to Litovkin, was not only that after 2014, Kiev severed military-technical cooperation with Russia.

As of 1992, 88 SS-18 missile launchers had been deployed in Russia, most of them at the Dombarovsky missile base in the Orenburg Region, in the southern Urals.

As of 01 April 2005 Kommersant reported that the Strategic Missile Force of Russia had 496 ICBMs, including 226 silo-launched (86 heavy missiles R-36MUTTH and R-36M2 Voevoda, 10 medium missiles UR-100NUTTH, and 40 light missiles RS-12M2 Topol-M) and 270 mobile ground-launched missiles RS-12M Topol. By 2010, the Force may have no more than 313 ICBMs, including 154 silo-launched (40 R-36M2 Voevoda, 50 UR-100NUTTH, and 64 RS-12M2 Topol M), and 159 mobile ground-launched missiles (144 RS-12M Topol and 15 RS-12M1 Topol M). The number of warheads on the ICBMs will be reduced from 1,770 to 923. [upon close inspection these numbers don't exactly add up and are internally inconsistent, based on standard warhead loading assumptions]

On 26 August 2005 Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said said the Soviet-era Voyevoda heavy missiles (whose NATO reporting name is Satan) could remain in service for a long time. "What we launch today are missiles with an expired service life," Ivanov said. In this way, the Defense Ministry can check the condition of missiles with an expired service life and save large amount of money on their disposal," Ivanov said.

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces conducted 21 December 2006 a successful test launch of a RS-20V Voyevoda (NATO codename SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile. The launch was conducted to test the RS-20V's flight and technical characteristics to extend the service life of the R-36M2 missile systems from 19 to 20 years.

The chief of the Russian General Staff on 20 February 2007 praised the RS-20 Voyevoda missile systems (NATO codename SS-18 Satan) and said the extension of their service life is linked to Russia's security. "Maintaining these intercontinental ballistic missiles on combat duty with guaranteed nuclear security makes it possible to retool the ground element of the strategic nuclear forces with new armaments with lower expenditure," Army General Yury Baluyevsky told government daily Rossiiskaya Gazeta.

On 30 July 2007 Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said that the RS-20 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile, adopted exactly 20 years earlier, will remain in service until 2014-16. A spokesman for the forces said the missile remains the most powerful ICBM in the world.

On 12 February 2008 President Vladimir Putin ratified a Russian-Ukrainian agreement to extend the service life of RS-20 (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missiles. The lower and upper houses of parliament passed the draft law on the missile on January 25 and January 30 respectively. The agreement was coordinated during a visit by the Ukrainian defense minister to Moscow in 2006 and established that Ukraine would assist Russia in maintaining systems that have been on combat duty for the past 15 years for a further 10-15 years. With this agreement in force, Russia will not need to decommission the existing missiles and manufacture more new Topol-M systems, which would increase the defense budget by $3-4 billion.

Satan, which can carry 10 independently targeted nuclear charges, was designed at the Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in Dnepropetrovsk, in the south of central Ukraine. Under the 1992 Lisbon agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and the United States, Ukraine may not produce such missiles or have other types of strategic weapons. All equipment for the manufacture of ICBMs at the enterprise was destroyed. The Dnepropetrovsk plant, where the Voevoda was made in Soviet times, now produces trolleybuses, but its missile designers still provide routine maintenance to and repair Satans, when and if necessary, under the agreement prolonged by the Russian parliament. Russia has only 75 such missiles now, but they form the core of its strategic deterrence force.

As Colonel-General Sergei Karakayev, commander of the Strategic Missile Force, stated in march 2018, the reliability indicators of the Voevoda complex remain stable after many years of operation. "It is planned to ensure the combat duty of the missile complex until 2024, which will ensure the timely re-equipment of missile regiments for a promising heavy-duty missile system. In addition, the main executor of the works (SEC Makeev-TASS comment) outlines ways to extend the service life, which will ensure the combat duty of the complex until 2025-2027.

According to open sources, as of March 2018 in the silos of the Strategic Missile Forces there were 46 missiles of this class. The 62nd Uzhurskaya Missile Division (the Krasnoyarsk Territory, the Omsk missile unit of the Strategic Missile Forces) and the Orenburg missile unit were armed with voevodas.