On August 7, 2007, the K-211 Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy submarine of the Project 667BDR conducted a successful test launch of a R-29R (SS-N-18) missile. The Navy reported that the missile warhead reached its intended target at the Chizha test site at Kanin Peninsula. The Navy representative emphasized that the test "demonstrated reliability of the command and control system of the strategic fleet".
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It’s really awesome that such an old missile can still properly work. Do you know Pavel the rocket age?
That's an interesting question. The missile was probably manufactured some time before 1992, but it is hard to tell when it was loaded to the submarine.
So does it mean, that the R-29R has got just one warhead? That's pretty wastful isn't it?
No, it normally has three. All the reports used singular "warhead", which might mean that only one warhead was used in this test.
Pavel, have you got any news on that South African satellite that was supposed to be launched by a missile from the same family (either as Volna or Sthil')?
Thanks in advance
As far as I understand, the Shtil' launched has been planned (from Barents Sea), but that's about it. No specific date has been set yet.
pavel, so can you explain to me, why they used just one? I doubt that the rockets are cheap, so why dont they fire with three warheads?
One of the variants of the R-29R carried a single 450kt warhead (the Mod 2 under NATO nomenclature, if I'm not mistaken). The general consensus seems to be that all the missiles still in service for the 667BDR boats were the original 3 x 200kt MIRV Mod 1 missiles. Is it common, Pavel, to reduce the number of warheads for a test?
Quite frankly, I don't know how common it is to use a single warhead in flight tests. And we, in fact, don't know if there was only one warhead in this particular test.
Does anyone knows if the 3 project 941 Typhoon SSBN will remain in service or will be scrapped?