RT-2

The RT-2 was an intercontinental ballistic missile deployed by the Soviet Union from 1969 through 1996. It was assigned the NATO reporting name SS-13 Savage and carried the industry designation 8K98. It was probably designed by the V.N. Nadiradze Missile Design Bureau and about 60 were built by 1972.

The RT-2 was the first solid-propellant ICBM in Soviet service, and was a development of the earlier RT-1 series. It was a three-stage inertially-guided missile that is comparable to the American Minuteman III. It was armed with a single 600 kiloton warhead and was silo-launched, although a rail-based version was contemplated by Soviet planners. It was deployed in the Yoshkar Ola missile field.

The two upper stages of the RT-2 were used to develop the RT-15 mobile IRBM system. The RT-2PM Topol is supposedly a modernised version of the RT-2

General Characteristics

* Length: 20m (65.6ft)
* Diameter: 1.7m (5.57ft)
* Launch Weight: 34,000kg (33.46 tons)
* Guidance: inertial
* Propulsion: solid, three-stage
* Warhead: 600kt nuclear
* Range: 8000km (4970 miles)

Operators

; USSR: The Strategic Rocket Forces were the only operator of the RT-2.

See also

* List of missiles
* List of rockets

References

* Hogg, Ian (2000). "Twentieth-Century Artillery". Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. ISBN 1-58663-299-XTemplate group
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