"Satan" against the "Peacemaker"
Southern regions of Russia are not available for the MX. "Satan" is flying to anywhere in the US
The P-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, the Soviet microcircuits were the largest in the world, but this did not cause pride.
The fact that the size of the rocket is directly related to its energy capabilities. Energy is the flight range and the mass of the load being dropped. The first was important for overcoming missile defense systems and delivering an unexpected strike on the enemy. One of the predecessors of "Satan" was a unique orbital rocket R-36orb. These missiles, in the number of 18 pieces, were deployed at Baikonur. The energy of the same "Satan" did not involve the withdrawal weapons into space, however, allowed to strike 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 around the perimeter. The weight of the weight being cast was much more important for us than for the Americans. The fact is that the weak point of our intercontinental ballistic missiles has always been guidance systems. Their accuracy is always inferior to the accuracy of the American systems. And consequently, to destroy the same objects, Soviet missiles needed 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 Bomb was precisely the Russian invention: the Americans simply did not need warheads of tens of megatons. By the way, in parallel with the "Satan" in the USSR were developed and these monsters. Like the Cheleomev missile UR-500, which was supposed to deliver a 150 megaton (MT) warhead to the target. (Until now, its “civilian” version is used - the Proton carrier rocket, which takes the largest units of the ISS into space.) It was not accepted for service because the time came for mine-protected rockets that could be put out of action only a point hit of lower power charges.
In almost all respects - mass, range, warhead capacity, size (except accuracy) - our rocket is ahead of the American one. In addition, it is more beautiful. At least we think so
However, the Americans had a worthy competitor of “Satan” - the LGM-118A Peacekeeper rocket, for obvious reasons known in the USSR not as “Peacemaker”, but as MX. Peacekeeper, for the reasons stated above, was not equipped with a monoblock warhead. The ten MX warheads delivered almost the same range, having a starting mass of 2,5 times less than the "Satan". True, the weight of the warhead (SS) of the “Satan” was equal to 8,8 T, which was 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 was power on 600 kilotons (kt), but about ours - the data diverge. Domestic sources tend to underestimate the figures, naming numbers from 550 kt to 750 kt. Westerners estimate power somewhat higher - from 750 kt to 1 Mt. About the same both
missiles could overcome both missile defense and nuclear cloud after the explosion. However, the accuracy of hitting Americans at least 2,5 times higher. On the other hand, we definitely made more rockets. The United States produced the 114 MX, of which to date has been used for test launches of the 31 rocket. At the time of the signing of the SALT-1 agreement in the USSR, there were 308 mines for the home of Р36, which were replaced by "Satan". There is reason to believe that they replaced. True, according to the START-1 agreement, by 1 in January 2003, Russia should have no more than 65 heavy missiles. However, how many of them are left is unknown. Even the Americans.
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