Russia's Missile Forces Successfully Launch SS-18 Satan ICBM

**Ryan Ruck** · December 27th, 2006, 01:49

Russia's Strategic Missile Forces have conducted a successful test launch of an RS-20V Voyevoda (NATO codename SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile, the forces' press office said Thursday.

The launch was made at 11:20 a.m. Moscow time (8:20 a.m. GMT), a spokesman said, adding that the missile, launched from Orenburg in the south Urals, successfully hit hypothetical targets on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The launch was made to test the RS-20V's flight and technical characteristics to extend the service life of the R-36M2 missile systems to 20 years, the spokesman said.

"Before the launch, the missile had been in operation for 19 years," he said.

He said the RS-20V was a modernized version of the RS-20B.

The RS-20V Voyevoda was developed in Ukraine's design bureau Yuzhnoye. In 1988, the system, equipped with this missile, was adopted by the Missile Forces. The missile has a maximum flight range of 11,000 kilometers (6,840 miles) and a launch weight of 211 metric tons.

**vector7** · September 5th, 2012, 18:50

Companion Threads:

Russian missile chief claims shield-penetrating ICBM ready by 2018

Published: 03 September, 2012, 17:31

A nuclear missile silo is opened for inspection by the Russian rocket forces, at a site about 70 kilometres from Saratov, November 12, 1994.(REUTERS / Str Old)

Russia will begin production six years from now of a new heavy ICBM that can better penetrate the US missile defense system in Europe, the head of Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces said.

“The building of the missile continues, it will be complete in 2018,” Colonel-General Sergey Karakayev said in an interview with RIA-Novosti.

The new and as-yet-unnamed silo-based ICBM will replace the R-36M2 ‘Voyevoda’ missile (known to NATO as the SS-18 ‘Satan’).

Karakayev first announced the project in May 2011, when he revealed that the planned ICBM design will be capable of bypassing missile defense systems within the next 15-20 years.

"Speaking about combat effectiveness, it is necessary to note the new missiles' ability to be invulnerable before launch thanks to their mobility, as well as their ability to tackle the task of defeating any possible missile defense system within the next 15-20 years, should such a need arise," Karakayev said.

The message, as well as the latest mention of missile defense, comes as a Russian response to US plans to deploy components of its global missile defense system near Russia’s borders. Such a move would upset the current global balance of nuclear power.

The US claimed that its system is a safeguard against threats from rogue nations like Iran and North Korea, but refused to offer Russia legally binding guarantees that the system would be limited to this purpose. A legally binding guarantee would give Russia the right to inspect the system, along with possible access to other military bases.

Karakayev’s statements show that Russia still considers the US missile defense system a national security threat, and is preparing an asymmetrical response by developing weapons capable of breaching the system. Russia is also deploying shorter-range ballistic missiles near its Western borders, to conduct strikes against the missile defense shield if such need arises.

Tensions over the project were nearly resolved in 2010 when the US announced it had abandoned a plan to deploy missile defense radar and interceptors to Poland and the Czech Republic. Russia responded by scrapping plans to deploy the short-range missiles to its westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad.

This thaw came to an end in 2011 when US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton revealed plans to install a missile defense base in Poland by 2018.

In early August, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the planned US deployment of a missile defense system in Europe could mean the return of a Cold War-style arms race. “It would be damaging strategic stability in violation of all the OSCE members' obligations not to strengthen their security at the expense of others," Lavrov told reporters in Helsinki, Finland.

**MinutemanCO** · September 5th, 2012, 18:55

Would someone tell me how the Obama administration, or any other liberal moron for that matter, can read an article like the one above and then say the US needs to decommission our nukes?