R-12 Dvina
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The R-12 Dvina was a theatre ballistic missile developed and deployed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It as given the NATO reporting name SS-4 Sandal and carried the industrial designation 8K63. It was designed by OKB-586 under Mihail Kuzmich Yangel (Dnepropetrovsk).
This single stage missile, powered by a storable, liquid propellants, was officially introduced into the Soviet arsenal in March 1959. It is in effect an advanced version of the R-5 or SS-3 Shyster. It was primarily designed to be used in a counter-strategic capacity, that is, against large economic/civilian targets. It was armed with either a high explosive warhead or a nuclear warhead of between 1 and 2.3 Megatons approximately.
As originally designed, the missile was fired from soft surface launchers. However, a later refinement to the design (the R-12U, first tested in 1961) was fired from both surface launchers and hardened silos. The liquid-fuelled rocket could be held in a state of high alert for some hours (when used with surface launchers) or even days (in the silo configuration).
It was deployments of the R-12 missile that caused the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962. It was originally guided by radio command but by 1962 it was changed to a simple inertial guidance. It was deployed in large numbers with field armies. But by 1977 the missile began to be phased out to be replaced by the RT-21M Pioneer (NATO reporting name SS-20). The last R-12U was destroyed in 1990.
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[edit] General Characteristics
- Length: 22.4m (73.5ft)
- Diameter: 1.65m (5.5ft)
- Launch Weight: 27,000 kg (59,536lb)
- Guidance: Inertial
- Propulsion: single-stage liquid
- Warhead: HE or 1MT nuclear
- Range: 2000km (1250 miles)
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- Hogg, Ian (2000). Twentieth-Century Artillery. Friedman/Fairfax Publishers. ISBN 1-58663-299-X
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