RT-2PM - SS-25 SICKLE - Deployment
In 1976, the Votkinsk plant began mastering the production of rockets. The decision to start mass production of the complexes was made in December 1984. Serial production launched in 1985.
In 1984, the construction of stationary-based facilities and the equipment of combat patrol routes for Topol mobile missile systems began. The construction objects were located in the positional areas of the intercontinental ballistic missiles RT-2P and UR-100 removed from duty, located in the OS silo. Later, the arrangement of the positional areas of the Pioneer medium-range complexes decommissioned under the INF Treaty began. On July 23, 1985, the first regiment of mobile Topols took up combat duty near Yoshkar-Ola at the site of the RT-2P missiles. Later, Topols entered service with the division stationed near Teikovo and previously armed with UR-100 ICBMs.
On April 28, 1987, a missile regiment armed with Topol complexes with a Barrier mobile command post took up combat duty near Nizhny Tagil. PKP "Barrier" has a multiply protected redundant radio command system. A combat control missile is placed on the mobile launcher PKP "Barrier". After the rocket is launched, its transmitter gives the command to launch the ICBM.
On May 27, 1988, the first regiment of the Topol ICBM with an improved Granit PKP and an automated control system took up combat duty near Irkutsk. December 1, 1988 BGRK "Topol" was adopted by the Strategic Missile Forces.
According to known data, the mass production of Topol missile systems continued until 1993. Almost every year, the Strategic Missile Forces received several dozen new self-propelled launchers and missiles. The peak of the production of 15U168 machines came in 1989-90, when the troops received almost one and a half hundred pieces of equipment. In other years, the number of serial samples put on duty did not exceed 20-30 units. In total, from 1984 to 1993, more than 350-360 mobile complexes were built. The number of missiles built is unknown, but probably in excess of several hundred.
The appearance of treaties on the reduction of offensive weapons led to the emergence of plans for a partial abandonment of the existing 15P168 / RS-12M complexes. However, the reduction of armaments was carried out mainly due to obsolete models. The command tried to keep the maximum number of new Topol PGRKs on duty.
Russia planned to re-equip approximately 400 silos where obsolete SS-11, SS-13 and SS-17 missiles were located. Under the START-II Treaty Russia was permitted to place 90 single- warhead solid fuel missiles in re-equipped SS-18 ICBM silos. In order to guard against a break-out scenario involving the rapid reconversion of SS-18 silos on-site inspection became a very important aspect of Start II verification. In accordance with the Protocol on Procedures Governing Elimination of Heavy ICBMs and on Procedures Governing Conversion of Silo Launchers of Heavy ICBMs, US inspectors could either physically witness the pouring of the five meters of concrete in the bottom of the silo or measure silo depth before and after concrete was poured. The Treaty did prohibit placing a launch canister greater than 2.5 meters in diameter. The Russians had undertaken a concerted political commitment to deploy only a single-warhead ICBMs of the SS-25 type in these converted launchers. The possibility existed, however that Russia could further modify the converted SS-18 silos to enable them to launch a different missile than the one declared.
The breakup of the Soviet Union had a significant impact on the Topol program. The dispersed manufacturing of ICBM components serious complicated researching and building new missile systems For example the Minsk Wheeled Truck-Tractor Manufacturing Plant [MAZ] in Belarus manufactured the missiles' transporter launchers, and some 90% of the components of the guidance system were manufactured in Ukraine.
In Belarus, as of December 1995, 63 SS-25 ICBMs originally deployed there had been returned to Russia. As of December 1995, Belarus had two operational SS-25 mobile ICBM regiments remaining on its territory, with a total of 18 nuclear warheads. In July 1992, Belarus signed an agreement with Russia placing the regiments under exclusive Russian control. In September 1993, Moscow and Minsk signed an agreement requiring the return of these nuclear missiles and all related missile support equipment to Russia by the end of 1996. A total of 81 SS-25 ICBMs and associated warheads were returned to Russia from Belarus.
By the late 1990s the lack of resources and qualified personnel forced the Russian forces to cut back operations considerably, with no more than one or two regiments of the mobile SS-25 missiles dispersed in the field. The remaining 40 or so regiments, each with nine single-warhead missiles, remain in garrison.
At the end of the nineties, mass production of the updated Topol-M missile systems began, but this did not lead to a quick abandonment of the existing Topols. The gradual decommissioning of these systems started only a few years later. So, at the end of the decade, several dozen launchers with a spent resource had to be disposed of. Due to the regular conduct of combat training launches and gradual disposal, the number of deployed missiles by that time had decreased and slightly exceeded 200-210 units.
In 1999, the Strategic Missile Forces were armed with 360 launchers of Topol missile systems. They were on duty in ten position areas. Four or five regiments are based in each district. Each regiment is armed with nine autonomous launchers and a mobile command post. Every year, one control launch of the Topol rocket is carried out from the Plesetsk training ground. The high reliability of the complex is evidenced by the fact that during its testing and operation, about fifty control and test launches of missiles were made. They all went through flawlessly. In February 2001, in a special test of operational readiness, the Strategic Missile Forces successfully launched a silo-based Topol ICBM at a target in the Kura range in Kamchatka. The Topol missile, the oldest of its type still in the Russian arsenal, was said to have performed flawlessly despite having outlived by 150 percent its operational period of service.
On 01 April 2005 the Strategic Missile Force of Russia, acting on the defense minister's orders, started liquidating two divisions in Kartaly, the Chelyabinsk region, and Kostroma. The number of missile divisions will be slashed from 15 to 10 by 2010 and the number of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) on combat duty will fall from 496 to 313.
The main reason for the ICBM cuts was old age, as some of the missiles were produced in Ukraine in the Soviet era. The collapse of the Soviet Union put an end to their production and the missile group's renewal process. Those missiles produced in Russia are growing old too. According to Lieutenant General Vitaly Linnik, deputy commander of the Strategic Missile Force for armaments, "the removal of ICBMs whose service life has expired from combat duty was proceeding according to plan and will not affect the combat readiness of the Force."
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 current 270 mobile ground-launched solid-fuel missiles RS-12M Topol (SS-25 Sickle in NATO classification) may be slashed to 144 in five years. At the same time, 89 new Topol-M missiles (64 RS-12M2 and 15 RS-12M1) are to be put on combat duty, but this was nearly two times fewer than the number of ICBMs to be slashed (136). 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]
The existing mobile ground-based missile systems 15P168 "Topol" had already worked out a significant part of their lifespan, and the missiles are expiring their shelf life. In addition, they no longer fully meet the requirements of the foreseeable future. To date, the command of the missile forces has determined the fate of the existing systems. Back in 2013, a line for the disposal of missiles was launched, and over the past years, several dozen missiles have been sent to this facility.
RT-2PM - SS-25 SICKLE - Design
"Topol" is a ground-based combat missile system with a three-stage solid-propellant intercontinental ballistic missile having a monoblock warhead with a nuclear warhead. The Topol missile system had unique qualities. High technologies were used in its creation,
The control system is autonomous, inertial. Created at the NPO Automation and Instrumentation under the leadership of Vladimir Lapygin. The aiming system was developed under the guidance of the chief designer of the Kyiv plant "Arsenal" Serafim Parnyakov. The launcher was developed by the Volgograd Central Design Bureau "Titan" under the leadership of Valerian Sobolev and Viktor Shurygin. The launcher is mounted on the chassis of the seven-axle tractor MAZ-7912 (later - MAZ-7917) of the Minsk Automobile Plant with the engine of the Yaroslavl Motor Plant. Chief designer of the rocket carrier Vladimir Tsvyalev. The mobile command post for the combat control of the Topol ICBM is located on the basis of a four-axle MAZ-543M vehicle. Solid propellant charges for engines were developed at the Lyubertsy NPO "Soyuz" under the leadership of Boris Zhukov (later Zinovy Pak headed the association).
Like the previously created ICBM, the Topol rocket was made according to the scheme with three marching and combat stages. To ensure high energy-mass perfection, new high-density fuel with a specific impulse increased by several units compared to previously used fillers was used in all marching stages. created engines, and the bodies of the upper stages were for the first time made by continuous winding of organoplastic according to the "cocoon" scheme. The most difficult technical task turned out to be the placement on the front bottom of the case of the upper stage of the thrust cut-off unit with eight reversible bells and "windows" cut through by DUZES (DUZ - detonating charge - ed.) in an organoplastic load-bearing structure. (Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering. Proceedings. Volume 1. Science. Technique. Production. 1995. P. 32-33).
"Topol" is equipped with a complex of means to overcome missile defense. The flight of the rocket is controlled by rotary gas-jet and lattice aerodynamic rudders. New nozzle devices for solid propellant engines have been created. To ensure stealth, camouflage, false complexes, and camouflage have been developed. Like the previous mobile complexes of the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, the Topol could be launched both from the combat patrol route and while parked in garage shelters with a retractable roof. Combat readiness from the moment the order was received to the launch of the missile was increased to two minutes. Mobile and stationary command posts were developed for the new complexes.
An autonomous, inertial control system was developed at the NPO Automation and Instrument Engineering under the leadership of Vladimir Lapygin. The aiming system was developed under the guidance of the chief designer of the Kyiv plant "Arsenal" Serafim Parnyakov. The launcher was developed at the Volgograd Central Design Bureau "Titan" under the leadership of Valerian Sobolev and Viktor Shurygin. The launcher is mounted on the chassis of the seven-axle tractor MAZ-7912 (later - MAZ-7917) of the Minsk Automobile Plant with the engine of the Yaroslavl Motor Plant.
Chief designer of the rocket carrier Vladimir Tsvyalev. The mobile command post for the combat control of the Topol ICBM is located on the basis of a four-axle MAZ-543M vehicle. Solid propellant charges for engines were developed at the Lyubertsy NPO "Soyuz" under the leadership of Boris Zhukov (later Zinovy Pak headed the association). Composite materials and the container were developed and manufactured at the Central Research Institute of Special Machine Building under the direction of Viktor Protasov. Rocket steering hydraulic drives and self-propelled launcher hydraulic drives were developed at the Moscow Central Research Institute of Automation and Hydraulics. The nuclear warhead was created at the All-Union Research Institute of Experimental Physics under the leadership of chief designer Samvel Kocharyants.
Initially, the warranty period for the operation of the rocket was 10 years. Later the warranty period was extended to 15 years.
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