Reports published by Makeyev Design Bureau, the two recent Sineva SLBM launches - on April 26, 2011 and on May 20, 2011 - may not have been regular launches. Or at least one of them wasn't.
The April 26th launch is reported to be conducted as part of the "Arbalet" program (switch to Russian language to see the report). It is hard to tell what this program is, but the report also says that the launch was related to "combat readiness," so it may be that "Arbalet" is just a program that includes regular missile launches to train the crews and check all the systems.
The second launch, on May 20th, appears to be more interesting. The report says that it was part of the "state flight test program (Program "Liner")." The report then refers to the missile as "Liner SLBM," not "Sineva." It adds that the Liner missile was developed by the Makeyev Design Bureau and produced by the Krasnoyarsk Machine-Building Plant. It looks like the missile tested on May 20th was not a regular Sineva, although in the official statement of the ministry of defense the missile was referred to as Sineva.
As one would expect, there is very little information about the Liner program (although it was mentioned a while ago as a project the Makeyev Design Bureau was working on). One possibility, which would probably explain both the differences and similarities is that Liner is a Sineva that carries more than four warheads. Back in the 1980s, the original R-29RM missile was tested with four and ten warheads. The ten-warhead version of the missile, however, was never deployed. It shouldn't be very difficult to go back and revive that old project. Maybe that's what the Liner project is. I hope we'll see more details coming out soon.
(My thanks to readers who asked the right questions and found the Makeyev Design Bureau reports.)
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Comments
The explanation might be simpler.
Military-industrial projects may have several names. "Liner" is referred to in the press rlease as a "tema" (topic). A "tema" is usually the code name of the project, not the name of the missile. For example, the missile called Topol-M was developed under a project (tema) codenamed Universal.
So, it is possible that Liner is just the name of the R&D project which produced Sineva, and Makeyev's press release mistakenly conflates the two.
Code names (tema) are also used for missiles life extension programs. For example, R-36M and UR-100N LEP is called "Zaryadye", but the missiles are obviously the same.
artjomh: There is no contradiction here - "Liner" does seem to be the name of the project (or tema). But since the Makeyev's release refers to the missile as "BRPL Liner (Liner SLBM)," it is likely that the project involves some modification of the missile. After all, I'm sure that "Sineva" was also at some point just the name of the project that involved resumption of R-29RM production.
No point reading tea leaves here. It might be a modification (what with the strange launch dates), but I personally wouldn't infer too much from this.
Still, interesting find.
No, it looks like there was something there. It may not be the ten-warhead missile, of course, but it does not seem to be a regular training launch either. We'll see.
Another version of events I've heard tossed around is that Liner may be R-29RM modified with a terminal guidance radar for an anti-shipping role. Makeyev has experience with ASBMs from their R-27K missile in late 60's, early 70's.
Also, now that you've discovered the tentative truth behind OKR Liner, maybe you can dig up more info on two other mysterious Makeyev projects: OKR Molodets and OKR Neizbezhnost (http://niigermes.ru/Godovoi%20ottshet-2009%D0%B3.doc ).
I would be skeptical about the anti-ship version. Especially since Liner has intercontinental range and multiple warheads.
Thanks for the link. As I understand, Neizbezhnost and Molodets are two missile development projects. Hard to tell what they are, though. It is quite possible that one of them is the "new heavy missile." But this is just a speculation, not based on anything.
Multi-MARVs? Certainly Sineva has a big payload.