R-29RM Shtil


The R-29RM Shtil was a liquid propellant, submarine-launched ballistic missile in use by the Russian Navy. It had the alternate Russian designations RSM-54 and GRAU index 3M27. It was designed to be launched from the Delta IV submarine, each of which is capable of carrying 16 missiles. The R-29RM could carry four 100 kiloton warheads and had a range of about. They were replaced with the newer R-29RMU Sineva and later with the enhanced variant R-29RMU2 Layner.

History

Operation Behemoth

On 6 August 1991 at 21:09, K-407, under the command of Captain Second Rank Sergey Yegorov, became the world's only submarine to successfully launch an all-missile salvo, launching 16 R-29RM ballistic missiles of total weight of almost 700 tons in 244 seconds. All the missile hit their designated targets at the Kura Missile Test Range in Kamchatka.

Space Launch Vehicle

Several R-29RM were retrofitted as Shtill carrier rockets to be launched by Delta-class submarines, the submarines being mobile can send a payload directly into a heliosynchronic orbit, notably used by imaging satellites. Outside the confines of the Russian military, this capability has been used commercially to place three out of four microsatellites into a low earth orbit with one cancellation assigned to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for better financial terms.

End of service

The last boat carrying R-29RM, K-51, went into refit to be rearmed with the newer R-29RMU Sineva on 23 August 2010.

Operators

Former operators

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