The SS-18 is the old, very large, and very powerful ICBM with the NATO code name SATAN. There were two versions, one capable of carrying up to 10 MIRV warheads of 500 kilotons each. The other version carried a single monster warhead of about 25 megatons. We called that one the Mountain Buster, as in Cheyenne Mountain, home of NORAD.
This new missile is the replacement for the SS-18, so it’s known as the SATAN-2. The US had hypergolic ICBMs on alert for over 20 years, the Titan II. They carried a single 9 MT warhead. There were only 52 Titan IIs in the inventory at most, and they were retired in the late 1980s. The Soviets/Russians fielded over 300 SS-18s.
Back in the early 1970s when the US and USSR were working on Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems, they signed the ABM Treaty. That treaty limited each nation to (IIRC) two ABM sites, later reduced to one site each. The US put our site in North Dakota to protect our ICBMs based there. The Soviets put their ABM site around Moscow. They bragged their system was to protect people while ours was to protect weapons. However, it really meant they planned on launching first, and there was no need to protect empty silos.
After all the issues their space program has had over the past decade, this isn’t surprising but if they learned something, it isn’t a failure, or so I’ve been told.
Nothing screams cutting-edge 21st century tech like a hypergolic-fueled ICBM!
It’s not a bad technology for a first-strike weapon. Well, except when it blows up in the silo.
The SS-18 is the old, very large, and very powerful ICBM with the NATO code name SATAN. There were two versions, one capable of carrying up to 10 MIRV warheads of 500 kilotons each. The other version carried a single monster warhead of about 25 megatons. We called that one the Mountain Buster, as in Cheyenne Mountain, home of NORAD.
This new missile is the replacement for the SS-18, so it’s known as the SATAN-2. The US had hypergolic ICBMs on alert for over 20 years, the Titan II. They carried a single 9 MT warhead. There were only 52 Titan IIs in the inventory at most, and they were retired in the late 1980s. The Soviets/Russians fielded over 300 SS-18s.
Back in the early 1970s when the US and USSR were working on Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) systems, they signed the ABM Treaty. That treaty limited each nation to (IIRC) two ABM sites, later reduced to one site each. The US put our site in North Dakota to protect our ICBMs based there. The Soviets put their ABM site around Moscow. They bragged their system was to protect people while ours was to protect weapons. However, it really meant they planned on launching first, and there was no need to protect empty silos.
Harder to hide mistakes these days compared to the Soviet Era. Of course they can’t just dragoon their ‘best and brightest’ like they could then.
After all the issues their space program has had over the past decade, this isn’t surprising but if they learned something, it isn’t a failure, or so I’ve been told.