On March 11, 1976, the legendary RSD-10 medium-range mobile missile system was adopted
The appearance of the complex in the late 1970s made the entire North Atlantic bloc flinch and recall the events of the Cuban missile crisis. For the first time since then, a weapon has appeared in the USSR that can inflict a catastrophic blow and at the same time remain unnoticed until the start of an attack. The RSD-10 medium-range missile system, also known in our country as the Pioneer, or the 15P645 complex, as it was designated in the list of indices of the Main Missile and Artillery Directorate, or SS-20 (under such an index he was known in NATO, additionally giving the name "Saber") was almost elusive. It became the first mobile ground complex for rocket men, which could launch missiles both from stationary launching positions and from any sites prepared in advance for it. At the same time, the "Pioneer" could not be calculated according to the knurled route: to get to the place of the shot, almost any highways, even unpaved and low-traffic ones, were suitable for him …
The development of a medium-range missile system, that is, capable of hitting targets at a distance of 5000–5500 km and at the same time mobile, not tied to a fixed launch pad or missile silo, in the Soviet Union began at the very beginning of the 1970s. The basis for the novelty was the Temp-2S complex - the same mobile, but equipped with an intercontinental ballistic missile. In the process of its development, it became clear that reducing the dimensions of the transport and launch container will make it possible to obtain the medium-range mobile complex so necessary for the country.
Combat training launch of the RSD-10 "Pioneer" missile system. Photo: svobod.ru
Such a complex was required primarily because the starting positions of the medium-range missiles of the R-12 and R-14 types, as well as the intercontinental R-16 missiles, which were at that time in service at that time, had already been "copied" by Western intelligence services and, accordingly, were under constant threat of destruction by the first the same strikes in the event of a nuclear conflict. In addition, in the east of the country, where mainly R-16 missiles were on alert, relations with China deteriorated sharply, therefore, not intercontinental, but medium-range missiles were required, and mobile ones, which do not require long and expensive construction of silo launch complexes.
To speed up the work on the new complex, the designers and engineers from the Moscow Institute of Heat Engineering, who made the Temp-2S and took up the Pioneer, took as a basis not only the general design. In fact, the 15Zh45 rocket, which became the main weapon of the RSD-10, was the first and modified second stage from the "Tempo". All that remained was to redesign some of the important components and rearrange the warhead, making it split. However, at the first stage, there were two versions of the Pioneer warhead: monoblock and multiple. Moreover, the Soviet government demanded the same. In the top secret resolution of the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 280-96, issued on April 20, 1973, it was not only instructed to start the development and testing of a medium-range mobile soil complex,but it also spoke directly about the use of a new complex of the first and second stages of the Temp-2S rocket in the rocket and about the unification of the ground equipment of the two complexes.
Since the groundwork, as they say, was good, the set deadlines for development were met. On September 21, 1974, the complex entered flight tests. They were carried out at the Kapustin Yar test site, which served as the main test site for most Soviet medium and intercontinental-range missile systems. It took more one and half year. However, to the credit of the creators of the complex, it should be noted that all test launches - and there were no less than 25! - were successful (one was recognized as partially successful), and the problems found were solved quite quickly. Finally, on January 9, 1976, the last launch from the Kapustin Yar test site took place, the results of which were endorsed by the head of the test commission, deputy commander of the 50th missile army, Lieutenant General Alexander Brovtsyn. Two months later, on March 11, by a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, the Pioneer complex with the 15Ж45 (RSD-10) missile was adopted by the Strategic Missile Forces.
RSD-10 "Pioneer" (SS-20 Saber)
At first, the Pioneers were deployed - in order to save money on preparing positions and to maintain high combat readiness - in the positioning areas of obsolete R-16 intercontinental missiles, which just at that time began to be decommissioned in accordance with the SALT-1 Treaty. But besides them, new positions were created for the RSD-10 - near Barnaul, Irkutsk and Kansk. The first to be armed with the Pioneer complex was the 396th missile regiment of the 33rd Guards Missile Division of the 43rd Red Banner Missile Army on August 31, 1976. It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Doronin, and regimental positions were located in the area of the city of Petrikov in the Gomel region.
Four years later, on December 17, 1980, the modernized Pioneer-UTTH complex (that is, with improved tactical and technical characteristics) entered service with our missilemen. It differed from its predecessor in a modified control system and a new aggregate-instrument block. This made it possible to increase the accuracy of hitting warheads from 550 to 450 m, as well as to increase the flight range to 5500 km. At the same time, the main characteristics of the complex and, most importantly, the missiles remained unchanged: the same three separable warheads, the same two solid-propellant stages, the same transport and launch containers on the same chassis, etc.
The unique complex was in service for 15 years, until May 12, 1991. But they began to remove the Pioneers from combat duty earlier. From 1978 to 1986, it was possible to produce 654 missiles for the RSD-10 and deploy 441 complexes. By the time of the signing on December 8, 1987 of the Treaty on the Reduction of Intermediate-Range and Short-Range Missiles, under which Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan signed autographs, 405 complexes remained deployed, another 245 missiles and 118 launchers were in storage (not counting 42 inert training missiles and 36 missiles, which were completed in factories). The overwhelming majority of the Pioneer missiles, as stipulated by the treaty, were gradually destroyed by detonating them at the Kapustin Yar range. But 72 were eliminated by the start-up method. The launches were carried out from August 26 to December 29, 1988 from the positional areas of Drovyanaya (Chita Region) and Kansk (Krasnoyarsk Territory), and all of them - let's emphasize: everything! - to the surprise of Western inspectors, they were absolutely successful and hassle-free!
However, for the entire period of operation of the Pioneer, not a single case of destruction or accident of a rocket was noted, and all 190 launches, including test, operational and liquidation, were flawless. This fact only strengthened foreign observers in the idea that they had succeeded in taking away from the Russians one of the most outstanding types of weapons, which was not accidentally nicknamed "The Thunderstorm of Europe" in the West. However, our country did not remain unarmed: by this time, the Topol complexes were already on alert, to which soon the modernized Topol-M - the heirs of the famous Pioneer - came to their aid.
