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Information About

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Ballistic Information

  Weapon Name Pioneer-3
  Weapon Type medium-range ballistic missile
  Range 5,500 Km
  Warheads 3
  Yield each 150 Kt
  Propulsion two-stage solid fuel
  Guidance inertial
  Cep 150-450 metres
  Length 165 metres
  Diameter 18 m
  Weight 37 tonnes
  Payload 1600 kg
  Manufacturer Votkinsk Machine Building Plant
  In Service Date 1976
  Out Service Date 1988
  States Soviet Union


The RSD-10 ''Pioneer'' (; ) was a medium-range Ballistic Missile with a Nuclear Warhead deployed by the Soviet Union from 1976 to 1988 . It carried GRAU designation '''15Zh45'''. And its NATO Reporting Name was '''SS-20 Saber'''. It was withdrawn from service under the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty .

The missile was 16.5 m high, 1.79 m in diameter and weighed 37.1 tons. It was based on two solid-fuel Fibre-glass clad stages of the RT-21 Temp 2S (SS-16 ''Sinner''). The missile's range was from 600 to 5,000 km initially; the final model had a maximum range of possibly 7,500 km. Initially the missile was fitted with a single 1 MT , 1.6 ton warhead, later models could take one warhead or two and from 1980 three MIRV 'd 150 KT devices (Pioneer UTTH). The CEP was also reduced from 550 metres to 150-450 meters.

It was intended to replace, or augment, the and the task given to the Moscow Institute Of Thermal Technology and Alexander Nadiradze . Flight testing began in 1974 and deployment commenced on March 11 , 1976 , with the first supplied units becoming operational in August of that year. Up to 1986 a total of 48 launch sites were equipped with 405 RSD-10 missiles.

The .

The United States deployed Pershing II and Tomahawk missiles in Western Europe to counter the RSD-10.

654 missiles were built in total. These and the 499 associated mobile launchers were destroyed by May 1991 in accordance with the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty . Fifteen SS-20 and Pershing II are preserved to commemorate this agreement. One RSD-10 can be seen in the grounds of the Museum Of The Great Patriotic War, Kiev , Ukraine , and another is inside the Smithsonian National Air And Space Museum at Washington, D.C. .


Former sites where RSD-10 Pioneer were deployed



See also

List Of Missiles


EXTERNAL LINK