Missiles of the R-36M/SS-18 family have never been deployed with more than ten warheads. But given their large throw-weight (8.8 tonnes is the official START number), it is easy to see that they can be made to carry much more than that. That was something that the United States worried quite a bit in the 1970s. And, as it turns out, rightly so.
Among the projects that the Soviet Union considered in the mid-1970s was that of a 15A17 missile – a follow-on to the R-36MUTTH (15A18). The missile would have had even larger throw-weight – 9.5 tonnes – and would be able to carry quite a few warheads. Five different versions of the missile were considered. Three of these would carry regular warheads – 38 (yes, it’s thirty eight!) with the yield of 250kt each, 24 500kt warheads, or 15 to 17 1Mt ones. Two modifications were supposed to carry guided warheads (“upravlyaemaya golovnaya chast”) – 28x250kt or 19x500kt.
Similar plans existed for another missile – UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 (15A35). Its 15A31 version, had it been developed, would have carried one of the following: 18x250kt, 11x500kt, 7-8x1Mt regular warheads or 12x250kt or 9x500kt guided. To be able to do that, the throw-weight of the missile had to be increased to 4.6 tonnes (the value for UR-100NUTTH is 4.35 tonnes).
Fortunately, none of this has ever materialized. The SALT II Treaty, signed in 1979, prohibited increasing the number of warheads ICBMs can carry. I’m sure other considerations played a role as well – a simple “strategic stability” estimate would show that putting that many warheads on vulnerable silo-based missiles is not exactly a smart idea – but I certainly would not underestimate the role of arms control.
So, eventually, things stayed where they were – R-36MUTTH was deployed with ten 500kt warheads, its follow-on, R-36M2 (15A18M) – with ten 800kt warheads (single-warhead versions with either 8.3Mt or 20Mt warhead also existed at some point). UR-100NUTTH is deployed with six warheads, 0.4Mt each.
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Whats the largest yield warhead the Russians ever deployed? I know about the Tsar Bomb but I want to know the largest yield they actually intended to use in war.
Some R-36M/SS-18 missiles (and probably some R-36M2) were deployed with the 20 Mt warhead. That seems to be the highest-yield warhead deployed.
When it says "guided", that would be in a MIRV configuration while the other configurations are MRV?
They are all MIRV, that is independently targeted. "Guided" means that warheads had terminal guidance to improve accuracy.
It seems to me that comrade Brezhnev had a very good ideas about family of his brand-new ICBMs! Thirty eight warheads atop of one "Satan" really looks awesome. Nothing strange Carter quickly arrived Moscov to sign SALT II treaty because he worried Secretary General could change his willingness to sign it.
It was considered 30Mt warhead for UR-500 ICBM(tested at 21.1 Mt in 5 august 1962).UR-500 RV had a weight of 12200 kg and warhead weight must be 7500kg. Later was considerated a 50mt warhead for R-56,tested in a clean version 24 december 1962.But later these plans were canceled and these devices never weaponised. Ironic, but one time US military considered using even a larger yields-for example were plans for 120-megaton NGB for B-70/Ws-110a and planned more exotic bombers such as nuclear ramjets.There was also been consideration of some very big boosters as super-heavy ICBMS,for example Saturn V with storable fuel components was once envisaged as ICBM.
The yield of A604G tn charge, that used in heavy RV of R-36 and R-36M/Muuth/m2 missiles was more likely 18mt, not 20 mt.There from interview with
Gen.-Col. (Ret.) Adrian A. Danilevich, Special Advisor for military doctrine to the Chief of the General Staff:
1.Regarding the targeting policy and the choice of targets,when the rocket forces were first created ,they possessed certain technical characteristics .One of the shortcomings of these first missile systems,like R-16, which was one of main ICBMs,consisted in the fact that CEP was from 2-3km.This despite the fact ,that they possessed fairly powerful warheads ranging from hunreds kilotons to 8 or 10 megatons.
2.We created the R-36 missile that scared you to death. They carried almost 18 mt in their warheads.
Kataev as i know not give weight of that charge.Weight of 8F675 RV was 4560kg.
CIA estimated weight of charge to be 10500 pounds (4752.3kg) and weight of RV13500 pounds (6110 kg). Fraction of device weight 0.78.
Yield was estimated to be 18 mt (based on Y/W 4 kt/kg),or 25 mt (based on y/w of Mk-41-5.3 kt/kg). I think that 5.3-greatest y/w achieved for standart dirty devices with yields in dozens of MT (for true multistage devices with 4th, 5th and etc.stages ratio would be much higher). From "The Air Force and strategic detterence 1951-1960. USAF historical devision liaison office, by G. F. Lemmer. Formely restricted data.declassified."
Thermonuclear weapons: By early of 1956 it was possible to fabricate TN weapons smaller than anything conceived two years earlier. AEC laboratories anticipated that they could soon achive a marked decrease in weight and marked increase in yield in four classes of TN weapons. For example, AEC predicted that a new Class A weapon would be built that would weigh not 50,000 pounds, but 25,000 pounds, and its yield would be 60 Mt rather than the earlier 20 Mt. For those who had been startled by the destructive force of the 20 kt bombs of 1945 and 1946, it must have been even to contemplate the possibility of a 60 MT weapon. Yet in early of 1957 AEC laboratories indicated that such a bomb might be devised in the not distant future.
This weapon was rejected by weak politicans,but other classes were produced. So, for Class A y/w was also 5.3 kt/kg. Various open Russian sources indicate that y/w for a604g and its Arzamas-16 competitor were in 4 times larger than y/w for RDS-37 derivatives tested 1957-1958 (they had y/w-1kt/kg). So, it is logical to assume that a604g had a y/w 4kt/kg.
I would be very greatfull for info on weight of a604g.
On the yield of the heavy warhead, I would trust Katayev's papers, not Danilevich - this information was still secret when he gave his interview, so he wouldn't give the correct number. Unfortunately, there is no data on the weight of that warhead.
I understand that a silo is not the most secure place to keep a TN warhead, but the "38devices-missiles" could be a very deterring weapon. Of course there is a risk of a counterforce strike, but such a risk exists also for barracks and other possible depot sites. It is very hard to hold this locations secret. In my view it could be acceptable to have all of them ready to start, if early warning properly wotked
Its weight most probably was initially 2500 kg and later increased to put on R-36 to 2625kg. 4560 kg weight for 8f675 RV and ~5500 kg for 15F141 - this is true data?
I'm not sure I understand. What are these data? Throw-weight of R-36M is listed as 8800 kg in START.
The first data comes from designer of warhead,however Feoktistov poorly determined this(He proposed large number of devices on this design,but this was a smallest,he said also that weight was increased by five percents to satisfy military requirements,but this not affected yield).The throw weight R-36 with 8f675 was a 5825 kg,and data that i have give 8f675 weight as 4560 kg,for 8f674-2852kg,and r-36m with 15f141 -6526kg.So this is evidence that weight of rv was increased.(I believe to 5500kg).START data have no sence,R-36m with MIRV-7825kg,Muuth-8470kg.Data for Muuth/m2 mirv solid and rv weight was a 370 kg.So weights were only 3700 kg,so this possible to put 20 of this on missile.
Throw-weight of a missile and the weight of a warhead are quite different things. The former does not depend on the latter. There is no contradiction in a 8800-kg throw-weight missile carrying, say, a 5825 kg warhead. Are 8F675, 8F674, and 15F141 single-warhead RVs?
20mt -this is on ICBM,but what was a largest yield on bomber?
I haven't seen data on bomb weapon yield, but my understanding is that bombers did not have large weapons.