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Intercontinental ballistic missile. Year: 1992. Family: RT. Country: Ukraine. Manufacturer's Designation: RT-2PM2. Yuzhnoye solid-propellant ICBM designed for mass production to counter US 'Star Wars' programme. Two built before break-up of Soviet Union. Some design features incorporated into all-Russian Topol-M. Universal was a Yuzhnoye solid-propellant ICBM designed to be produced cheaply in mass quantities in order to overwhelm planned American Strategic Defense Initiative anti-ballistic missile systems. Work began on a crash basis in the late 1980's and the first missile was delivered to Plesetsk for flight tests on 30 December 1991. The project was cancelled on the break-up of the USSR. The two completed missiles were handed over to MIT for design of an all-Russian counterpart, the Topol-M. Total Mass: 45,000 kg (99,000 lb).
Bibliography and Further Reading - Pervov, Mikhail, Raketnoye Oruzhiye RVSN, Violanta, Moscow, 1999.. Narrative overview of the missiles of the Russian strategic missile forces.
- Karpenko, A V, Utkin, A F and Popov,A D, Otechestvenniye strategischeskiye raketnoye kompleks, Sankt-Peterburg: Nevskii bastion; Gangut 1999.. Well-illustrated encyclopedia of the missiles of the Russian strategic missile forces.
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