On October 25 2016 the Strategic Rocket Forces carried out a successful test launch of an UR-100NUTTH/SS-19 missile from the Dombarovskiy basing area. The missile was launched at 11:58 MSK (08:58 UTC). According to a ministry of defense representative, the payload was "successfully delivered" to the Kura test site in Kamchatka.
This is probably another test of the Project 4202 hypersonic vehicle, similar to that conducted in April 2016.
The April launch helped finally identify the silo that is used for Project 4202 launches. It is the one at 50.972741, 59.550726 51.030808, 59.690054. UPDATE: I got the wrong silo. I also should note that the credit for finding the silo goes to anik, who also pointed out my mistake. (As you understand, there is no mystery in the method - I do try to follow all kinds of discussions and I do appreciate it when people tell me that I'm wrong.)
UPDATE: Or maybe it wasn't a Project 4202 test after all. The official ministry of defense statement says that "the goal of the launch was the confirmation of stability of key technical characteristics of missiles of this class during the period of extended service life." It well may be, but the "service life" could also be a cover story. It's hard to tell at this point. The last time UR-100NUTTH was launched in a dedicated service life extension test was in December 2011. That launch, however, was also part of the Project 4202 program. It is likely that later Project 4202 tests were used to extend service life of the missile (which was set to 36 years in 2014).
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Thanks Pavel!
BTW: Bing has an image of Aug 2014 showing a SS-18 over there...
https://binged.it/2f7iyz3
http://up.picr.de/27241210an.jpg
date seen on http://mvexel.dev.openstreetmap.org/bing/
Cheers
Pavel,
Any idea what the physical size of the project 4202 vehicle is? I'm guessing that it is large enough that it's use would effectively make any launch vehicle smaller than the UR-100N/RS-28 a single warhead ICBM? (i.e., Topol-M and Yars). Also curious as to the size/yield of warhead which the 4202 is designed to carry... probably something somewhat larger than the 100-150kt warheads on Yars and Liner, perhaps the 550-750kt Topol-M warhead?
Also, perhaps somewhat unusually for an ICBM, a lot is being made in international news of the RS-28 photo shown by Makayev on their website, along with a great deal of hyperbole on its capabilities. "Satan II/Son of Satan" is the terminology being used by media outlets. There seems to be a lot of wildly varying information floating about. However, I have caught snippets of interviews with Russian engineers/Rocket Forces personnel which are starting to form a clearer picture of the RS-28: 1.)the recently tested RS-28 first stage engine "RC-99" is being called an upgrade of the RD-264. 2.)A reduction in launch weight from the R36M2 of "close to half" (i.e., 110-115 tonnes minimum), 3.)The use of nested rocket stages. 4.)Another quoted figure of 150-160 tonnes (vs 210 for the R36M2). We might conclude from this information, if accurate, that the RS-28 Sarmat is somewhere between the UR-100N and the R36M2 in terms of launch mass. Using the R-36 engines would enable higher acceleration and a shorter boost phase (as advertised). The nested stages would contribute to a reduction of length and therefore structural mass without sacrificing fuel load. Improved specific impulse would also reduce weight/add range, although a south pole trajectory would probably still require a much lower payload...
For size, check the photo in this post - http://russianforces.org/blog/2015/06/summary_of_the_project_4202_de.shtml
Thanks Pavel, it does indeed look to be fairly large.
I am curious as to the utility of a boost-glide type vehicle like this vs a MARV when dealing with non-nuclear kinetic energy interceptors. A BG vehicle seems like overkill because such a minute amount of trajectory diversion is required to evade these hit-to-kill interceptors. Perhaps a boost-glide vehicle can maintain a higher speed or hold a depressed trajectory longer?
About RS28:
- there was a statement about 10t payload and 100t launch mass.
- there was some information about the engines, but appears to be inconclusive.
In my opinion, RS28 is de facto a direct R36M2/SS18 replacement, which would allow Russia to keep high through weight ICBMs in service. The image released appears to support that notion.
Note, that R36M2s carry about 1/2 of the deployed RVs of the RVSN, meaning that without replacement a lot of RVs would have to be deployed in the Navy.
Interestingly, I wonder what Pavel thinks about the Navy, as it appears that they plan to keep the Delta-IVs through the 2020s, meaning that we would have ~14 SSBNs with 224 launchers, (and assuming 3/4 launchers being deployed with standard RV loads) ~168 deployed SLBMs with ~1008 deployed warheads.
I would just note that it is probably not RS-28. There is a lost of confusion about this designation.