Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
March 15, 2010
IWG Report 2009
Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
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SSC-X-4
| Country: | Russian Federation |
|---|---|
| Alternate Name: | Slingshot, RK-55 Granat |
| Class: | LLCM |
| Target: | Land |
| Length: | 8.09 m |
| Diameter: | 0.51 m |
| Launch Weight: | 1700.00 kg |
| Payload: | 200 kT nuclear |
| Propulsion: | Turbofan |
| Range: | 3000.00 km |
| Guidance: | INS, TERCOM |
| Status: | Banned, Destroyed |
Details
The SSC-X-4 “Slingshot” (RK-55 Granat) was an intermediate-range, ground-launched, road mobile, turbofan-powered, single warhead cruise missile developed and manufactured by the Soviet Union.
Development of the ground-launched SSC-X-4 began in December 1976, along with the air-launched AS-15 “Kent” (Kh-55 or RKV-500A) and the submarine-launched SS-N-21 “Sampson” cruise missiles. The RK-55 family of missiles was intended to complement the intermediate-range SS-20 “Saber” (RSD-10 Pioneer) ballistic missile, which could strike all strategic targets in Europe. The missiles are believed to have been developed and manufactured by the Raduga Mechanical Design Bureau (MKB Raduga). U.S. sources claim that the Rk-55 was based on the U.S. Tomahawk, the blueprints of which the Soviets acquired at an early design stage.
The SSC-X-4 was deployed on an eight-wheeled Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL), with six missiles per vehicle stored in launch canisters. The missile was 8.09 m long, had a body diameter of 0.51 m, and had a launch weight of 1,700 kg. Guidance was provided by an inertial navigation system (INS) in the midcourse phase, with some form of terrain matching for position updates and terminal guidance. The missile was powered by a tandem-mounted solid propellant booster rocket in the launch phase, which was jettisoned after launch. The main turbofan engine stowed in the rear body of the missile was lowered into the air stream after launch. The SSC-X-4 flew at low level, probably around 200 m, and is reported to have had a maximum range of 3,000 km. It carried a single 200 kiloton nuclear warhead.
In 1987, the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty eliminated all nuclear-armed ground-launched ballistic and cruise missiles with ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers and their infrastructure. The Soviet Union was forced to destroy its entire stock of SSC-X-4 cruise missiles. 80 missiles and six TEL vehicles existed at the time of data transfer for the INF Treaty, and were all destroyed by June 1989.(1)
Footnotes
- Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 42 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, July 2005), p. 628; GlobalSecurity.org, “RK-55 / SSC-X-4 Slingshot,” available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/world/russia/ssc-4.htm, accessed on August 1, 2006.
