Granat 3K10 / RKV-500 / SS-N-21 Sampson

The RKV-500 is the Soviet counterpart to American BGM-109 Tomahawak cruise missile. The RKV-500 and the Kh-55 employed by strategic bombers share the same airframe. The RKV-500 is designed to be launched through a submarine torpedo tube. The sea-based version SS-N-21 Sampson was reportedly deployed on the Yankee Notch submarines. Since the SSC-4 coastal defense variant is carried in a 25.6-in (650-mm) diameter canister, some analysts have that the sub-launched variant is probably for launch only from 650-mm diameter torpedo tubes.

As a result of the R & D “Echo” conducted by the GosNIIAS in the late 1960s, it was possible to overcome the enemy’s air defense and missile defense systems with subsonic cruise missiles with their massive use, as well as using the “counter attack” technique to defeat the enemy’s anti-aircraft and anti-aircraft missiles. the purpose of clearing the corridor for other attackers of the Kyrgyz Republic. The development of a torpedo-missile complex with a KS-122 rocket was started by the Malakhit design bureau (chief designer — L.A. Podvyaznikov) by order of the Ministry of the Judiciary from December 9, 1975. The torpedo-missile complex was intended for solving operational-strategic tasks at the continental theater of combat operations. by the defeat of administrative-political and large military-industrial centers with previously known coordinates. The official design of airborne and sea-based long-range cruise missiles was initiated in the USSR by a Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of December 9, 1976.

The designers of the Novator Design Bureau received in front of their colleagues from General Dynamics, an almost two-meter head start. The torpedo tubes of Soviet submarines with the same 533-mm caliber were much longer than the American ones. There seems to be no accurate data on the internal length of the “typical” TA tube, but visitors to the C-189 museum ship (middle submarine of the first post-war 613 project) say that the torpedo tube on this boat is 8 meters. It is also known that the overall length of the DTA-53 installed on destroyers pr. 956 is 8.44 meters.

With torpedo tubes adopted by the Soviet Navy longer by 1/3, Soviet designers had opportunity to develop more powerful ammunition compared to NATO fleets, which manifested itself, in particular, in increasing the launch mass of 3M10 - by 12%, according to other data - by 15%. Additional kilograms were not wasted, but, according to the available data, they went to increase the stock of fuel and, as a result, the flight range ( 3,000 km compared to 2,500 km from Tomahawk TLAM-N Block I).

Taken from different sources, projections of KP 3M10 of the complex “Granat”, which are united by one thing - their proportions do not correspond to the original. When recalculating using a well-known diameter (0.514 m), the launch length is 7.4 or 7.9 instead of 8.1 m, and the wingspan is 3.0 or 3.9 instead of 3.3 m. In addition, on all images, the launching accelerators have different lengths - 1.2, 1.0 and even 1.4 meters. It is difficult to understand how much of this variation reflects different versions of the missile, and how much reflects artistic license or imprecision.

The upgraded RKV-500B featuring the same improvements than the Kh-55MS missile was deployed in the 1990s within the Russian Navy. There were sketchy reports of an experimental derivative of the 3K-10 named the "3M-55 (SS-N-27)" that is intended for the antiship role. It had a warhead consisting of a solid fuel missile that performs a terminal attack at Mach 2.5.

The sea-based 3K10 ( C-10) Granat missile system with a 3M10 strategic cruise missile (KS-122) designed to be used from 533-mm submarine torpedo tubes to destroy the administrative and industrial centers of the enemy with known coordinates was developed by Sverdlovsk machine-building design bureau Novator and adopted by the Navy of the USSR on December 31, 1983 (the actual flow of mass-produced missiles to the fleet, according to known data, began only in 1987). The 3M10 missile had a nuclear warhead and was in fact an analog of the American naval strategic cruise missile BGM-109A Tomahawk TLAM-N.

Born in opposition to the nuclear "Tomahawk", and, being its complete analog, the 3M10 missile could not play its intended role in the arms race. Soon after the very beginning of the large-scale deployment of the Grenade on nuclear submarines of the Soviet Navy, in early 1989, in accordance with the Soviet-American agreements, all weapons equipped with nuclear warheads were removed from nuclear submarines. According to the informal "politically binding" Soviet-American agreements in the fall of 1991, by the mid-1990s, all strategic cruise missiles with nuclear warheads were removed from the ships of both sides and stockpiled. As of 2012, the C-10 Granat complex was probably in service with the Russian Navy, but cruise missiles are not deployed on submarines, but are stored in Navy bases.

In 2016 the 3M-10 missiles were transferred for disposal from the storage bases of the Northern Fleet. From the base in Zaozersk 40 missiles and from the base in Severomorsk - 20. The missiles were transferred without warheads ["combat units"]. The main goal is the recycling ["utilization"] of the full volume of missile weapons, its component parts and elements of weapons and military equipment (hereinafter RAV) previously released (deactivated, developed resource indicators, having expired service life, unsuitable for technical condition, obsolete for the defense of the state). The RAV is disposed of as part of the federal target program “Industrial utilization of weapons and military equipment for 2011-2016 and for the period until 2020”.

For disposal of products of the PAB nomenclature containing explosives, the following methods can be used: preliminary disassembly (with separation of explosive elements from components); the destruction of explosives and flames, pyrotechnic means by burning in armor; - burning of large charges of explosives.

For utilization of equipment and blocks containing information constituting a state secret (TM equipment 3P-11.0300-01, AB-51-1, A065MA) to break the inter-unit communication and demilitarization by crushing into small pieces. The launch vehicle is part of the anti-ship cruise missile - 3M-10; The anti-ship cruise missile 3M-10 were transferred for recycling without a warhead.