"Pioneer", which became the "Storm of Europe"
11 March 1976, the legendary medium-range mobile missile system RSD-10 was adopted
The appearance of the complex at the end of 1970 made the entire North Atlantic bloc tremble and recall the events of the times of the Caribbean crisis. For the first time since the USSR appeared weapon, able to deliver a catastrophic strike and at the same time go unnoticed until the start of the attack. The medium-range missile system RSD-1976, also known in our country as the “Pioneer” or the 10P15 complex, as it was designated in the index list of the Chief Rocket and Artillery Directorate, or SS-645 (under this index knew him in NATO, additionally assigning the name "Saber") was almost elusive. It became the first mobile soil complex for rocket engineers, which could launch rockets both from stationary launch positions and from any sites prepared for it in advance. At the same time, the “Pioneer” could not be calculated using the following route: in order to get to the place of the shot, almost any roads, even unpaved roads and little roads, 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 launching table or a missile mine, in the Soviet Union was taken at the very beginning of 1970's. The basis for the novelty was the Temp-2C complex - the same mobile, but equipped with an intercontinental ballistic missile. In the process of its development, it became clear that reducing the size of the transport and launch container would provide an opportunity to get a mobile complex of medium range, so necessary for the country.
Conduct training and combat launch missile complex RSD-10 "Pioneer". Photo: svobod.ru
Such a complex was required primarily because the launch positions of medium-range missiles of the P-12 and P-14 type, as well as intercontinental P-16, which were at that time, were already "copied" by Western intelligence services and, accordingly, were constantly threatened with destruction same blows in the event of a nuclear conflict. Moreover, in the east of the country, where the P-16 missiles were mainly on combat duty, relations with China sharply deteriorated, therefore not intercontinental, but medium-range missiles, and mobile ones, which did not require long-term and expensive construction of mine launch complexes, were required.
In order to speed up work on the new complex, the designers and engineers from the Moscow Institute of Thermal Engineering, who made Temp-2С and took up Pioneer, took as a basis not only a common design. In fact, the 15Ж45 rocket, which became the main weapon of the RSD-10, was the first and modified second stage of the "Tempov". It only remained to re-design some important components and re-arrange the head part, making it divided. However, at the first stage, there were two versions of the Pioneer warhead: monoblock and separable. Moreover, the Soviet government demanded the same. In the top secret decision of the CPSU Central Committee and Council of Ministers of the USSR No. 20-1973 issued on April 280, not only was it instructed to start developing and testing a medium-range mobile soil complex, but also explicitly said that the missile’s first and second stages Temp-96С ”and about the unification of the ground equipment of the two complexes.
Since the groundwork, as they say, was good, it was possible to withstand the tight deadlines set. 21 September 1974, the complex entered the flight tests. They were conducted at the Kapustin Yar test site, which served as the main test site for most Soviet medium-range and intercontinental missile systems. In order to “fly around” the rocket, eliminating all the shortcomings identified during the tests, and “break in” the component parts of the complex, which included eight vehicles for only one division (it was based at the time on two mobile launchers with 15IX45 missiles) one and half year. However, to the credit of the creators of the complex, it should be noted that all the test launches - and there were as many 25! - they were successful (one was recognized as partially successful), and the detected problems could be solved quite promptly. Finally, on January 9, 1976, the last launch from the Kapustin Yar test site took place, the results of which were approved by the head of the test committee, deputy commander of the 50 Rocket Army, Lieutenant General Alexander Brovtsyn. Two months later, on March 11, by a decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, the Pioneer complex with the 15Ж45 rocket (RSD-10) was adopted by the Strategic Missile Forces.
RSD-10 Pioneer (SS-20 Saber)
At first, “Pioneers” deployed — in order to save money on preparing positions and for the sake of maintaining high combat readiness — in the positional areas of outdated intercontinental missiles P-16, which at that time began to be removed from service in accordance with the SALT-1 Treaty. But besides them, for the RSD-10, new positions were created - under Barnaul, Irkutsk and Kansk. The first to receive the Pioneer complex was the 31 August 1976 of the 396 Rocket Regiment of the 33 Guards Rocket Division of the 43 Red Banner Rocket Army. It was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Doronin, and regimental positions were located near the town of Petrikov in the Gomel region.
Four years later, 17 December 1980-th, the modernized Pioneer-UTTH complex (that is, with improved tactical and technical characteristics) entered into service with our missilemen. It differed from its predecessor by 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 rockets remained unchanged: the same three separated warheads, the same two solid propellant stages, the same transport and launch containers on the same chassis, etc.
The unique complex stood in service for 15 years, until 12 May 1991. But to shoot the "Pioneers" from combat duty began earlier. From 1978 to 1986, it was possible to produce 654 rockets for RSD-10 and deploy the 441 complex. By the time 8 signed December of the 1987 Treaty on the Reduction of Medium-Range and Short-Range Missiles, under which autographs were put by Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan, 405 complexes remained deployed, 245 missiles and 118 launchers were stored (except for 42 inert training and XNUM launches which were completed at the plants). The overwhelming majority of the Pioneer missiles, as stipulated by the treaty, were gradually destroyed, having blown up at the Kapustin Yar launch site. But 36 was eliminated by the launch method. The launches were carried out from 72 August to 26 December 29 from the positional areas of Drovianaya (Chita region) and Kansk (Krasnoyarsk region), and all of them - we emphasize: everything! - To the surprise of Western inspectors, they were absolutely successful and trouble-free!
However, for all the time the Pioneer was in operation, there was not a single case of missile failure or accident, and all 190 launches, including test, operational and liquidation, were flawless. This fact only strengthened the foreign observers in the thought that they had managed to take away from the Russians one of the most distinguished types of weapons that it was no accident that the nickname “Thunderstorm of Europe” was in the West. However, our country did not remain unarmed: by this time, the Topol complexes were already in combat duty, and soon the upgraded Topol-M, the heirs of the famous Pioneer, came to help.
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