The R-36M was indeed the largest and heaviest mass-produced combat missile in the world. On the one hand, you involuntarily begin to be proud of this fact, and on the other, you ask yourself: why? After all, Soviet microcircuits were the largest in the world, only it did not cause pride.
The fact is that the size of a rocket is directly related to its energy capabilities. Energy is the flight range and the weight of the dropped load. The first was important for overcoming missile defense systems and delivering a surprise strike against the enemy. One of the predecessors of Satan was the unique R-36orb orbital rocket. These missiles, in the amount of 18 pieces, were deployed at Baikonur. Energy of the "Satan" itself did not imply the withdrawal of weapons into space, however, it made it possible to strike at the United States from unexpected directions, not covered by countermeasures. For the United States, such a range was not fundamental: our country was surrounded by American bases along the perimeter. The throw weight was much more important to us than to the Americans. The fact is that guidance systems have always been the weak point of our ICBMs. Their accuracy has always been inferior to that of American systems. Consequently, in order to destroy the same objects, Soviet missiles had to deliver much more powerful warheads to the target than the American ones. No wonder one of the most popular Soviet army sayings was: "The accuracy of the hit is compensated by the power of the charge." For the same reason, the Tsar Bomba was precisely a Russian invention: the Americans simply did not need warheads with a capacity of tens of megatons. By the way, in parallel with "Satan", real monsters were also developed in the USSR. Like Chelomeev's UR-500 missile, which was supposed to deliver a 150 megaton (Mt) warhead to the target. (Its "civilian" version is still used - the Proton rocket carrier, which launches the largest ISS blocks into space.) It was never put into service, since the time had come for silo missiles protected from an enemy strike, which could be disabled only by a point hit of charges of lower power.
Nevertheless, the Americans had a worthy competitor to Satan - the LGM-118A Peacekeeper rocket, for obvious reasons known in the USSR not as the Peacemaker, but as MX. Peacekeeper, for the reasons stated above, was not equipped with a monoblock warhead. Ten same MX warheads delivered almost the same range, having a launch mass 2.5 times less than the "Satan". True, the weight of the warhead (warhead) of "Satan" was 8, 8 tons, which is almost twice the weight of the warhead of an American missile. However, the main characteristic of a warhead is not weight, but power. Each of the American had a capacity of 600 kilotons (kt), but about ours - the data differ. Domestic sources tend to underestimate the figures, citing figures from 550 kt to 750 kt. Westerners estimate the capacity to be somewhat higher - from 750 kt to 1 Mt. Both are about the same
missiles could overcome both missile defense systems and a nuclear cloud after an explosion. However, the Americans' hitting accuracy is at least 2.5 times higher. On the other hand, we have definitely made more missiles. The United States has produced 114 MXs, of which 31 have been used for test launches to date. At the time of the signing of the SALT-1 treaty, the USSR had 308 mines for basing the P36, which were replaced by Satan. There is reason to believe that it was replaced. True, according to the START-1 treaty, by January 1, 2003, Russia should have no more than 65 heavy missiles. However, how many of them remain is unknown. Even the Americans.
