RT-25 8K97 MRBM

The governmental order issued on in April of 1961 provided for the development missiles based on solid fuel led to plans to development for the RT-25. The RT-25 was intended to be based on the first and third stages of the RT-2. Its maximum range was supposed to be 4000-4500 km. The designated design bureau was Korolev's OKB-1, and the project received the industrial index 8K98. Its development never got beyond the initial stage as the Ministry of Defense suspended further development. It did not receive a NATO reporting name but did have an industry designation of 8K97.

The Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 316-137 of April 4, 1961 appointed OKB-1 of the general designer S.P.Korolev as the head design bureau to create a stationary missile system with solid-propellant ICBM RT-2 / 8K98 with monoblock GP. The same Decree provided for the development of medium-range ballistic missiles with the unification of missile engines based on the engines of all three stages of the RT-2 ICBM - the engines of the 2nd and 3rd stages of the ICBMs were to be unified with medium-range missiles RT-15 / 8K96, and the engines of the 1 st and 3 rd stages of the ICBMs were to be unified with the solid-propellant rocket of the medium-range missile RT-25 / 8K97.

S.P.Korolev was appointed Chairman of the Council of Chief Designers for both the RT-2 ICBMs and the RT-15 and RT-25 RTBMs. Direct development of the RT-25 rocket with a complex of ground equipment was carried out by SKB-172 of the Perm Machine-Building Plant named after VI Lenin (now - Iskra), chief designer - M.Yu. Tsirulnikov. SKB-172 Perm Machine Building Plant named after V. I. Lenin under the leadership of Mikhail Tsirulnikov. SKB was commissioned to create a missile complex, including a ballistic two-stage guided missile RT-25 with sustainer ["marching"] engines of mixed solid fuel and a complex of ground equipment. Experimental design work was carried out in SKB-172 (later - KB Engineering, now - Iskra), scientific - in Perm Research Institute-130 (later - Research Institute of Polymer Materials). The production base for the manufacture of solid fuel charges was the Perm plant named after SM Kirov (later - the SM Kirov NGO).

Particular attention in its creation was given to the design and development of large-sized engines. The first stage is identical to the first stage of the MB-RT-2 / SS-13 SAVAGE. The second stage is identical to the third stage of the MB-RT-2 / SS-13 SAVAGE. The second stage was used as the second stage of the RT-15 MRBM. In general, under the leadership of Mikhail Tsirulnikov, a number of unique rocket systems were created: the engine of the third stage of the experimental rocket 8K95-63, the engine of the second stage of the experimental rocket 8K96, the engines of the first and second stages of the rocket 8K97, the engines of the first and third stages of the rocket 8K98, the engines of the first and third stages missiles 8K98P.

From 1961 to 1963, 10 fire tests were performed on the engines of the second stage of the RT-25 rocket and 13 fire tests of the first-stage engines. In 1963, SKB-172 was commissioned to develop the first and third-stage rocket engines of the RT-2 rocket based on the first and second stages of the RT-25 rocket. In 1966-1967 ten test launches of RT-15 were conducted at the Kapustin Yar test site, equipped with the engine of Mikhail Tsirulnikov. Later, the engine was removed from the design of the RT-15 and replaced by TsKB-7 engine P. Tyurin.