Moscow Confirms Suspension of Russian-Ukrainian 'Dnepr' Rocket Launches

sferrin

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"Launches of Russian-Ukrainian carrier rockets have been suspended in accordance with President Vladimir Putin's decree, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) Commander Col. Gen. Sergei Karakaev said Wednesday.

"An April 15 decision by the President of the Russian Federation suspended the 'Dnepr' conversion program," Karakaev said.

Dnepr is a three-stage space delivery vehicle based on the family of R-36M intercontinental ballistic missiles (NATO reporting name SS-18 Satan, designated RS-20 by the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty START).

It is launched from two Russian bases: Baikonur in Kazakhstan and Yasny in southern Russia, part of the SMF's 12 missile formations.

The Russia-based international space company Kosmotras is tasked with upgrading the RS-20B missile developed in Ukraine.

Unconfirmed reports emerged in April that R-36M intercontinental ballistic missiles would no longer be launched under the Dnepr program in 2015."

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Moscow_Confirms_Suspension_of_Russian_Ukrainian_Dnepr_Rocket_Launches_999.html
 
How so? Dnepr has been reasonably reliable i think and i really doubt Ukrainians would sabotage a launch in any way.
 
flanker said:
How so? Dnepr has been reasonably reliable i think and i really doubt Ukrainians would sabotage a launch in any way.
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What I think he's saying (and I tend to agree) is that Putin would rather hang onto them for their original purpose.
 
Russia's ties with Ukraine are convoluted and headache-inducing. A lot of critical (strategic) Russian industry was in Ukraine, which after all was simply a province before the USSR collapsed. Russia had plans to develop in-Russia replacement industries for a lot of this stuff, but was not completely successful. In many different cases key items for Russian weapons systems were produced in Ukraine, and once the two countries stopped getting along, that left Russia really vulnerable.

I read a weird example just the other day. Apparently the newest Russian naval frigate uses gas turbine engines from Ukraine, which Ukraine will no longer provide. Thus the Russians have ships nearing completion with no engines, and apparently no replacement engines (I guess they should have thought about that before they invaded Crimea, huh?). So it's not just missiles but lots of other areas.
 
blackstar said:
Russia's ties with Ukraine are convoluted and headache-inducing. A lot of critical (strategic) Russian industry was in Ukraine, which after all was simply a province before the USSR collapsed. Russia had plans to develop in-Russia replacement industries for a lot of this stuff, but was not completely successful. In many different cases key items for Russian weapons systems were produced in Ukraine, and once the two countries stopped getting along, that left Russia really vulnerable.

I read a weird example just the other day. Apparently the newest Russian naval frigate uses gas turbine engines from Ukraine, which Ukraine will no longer provide. Thus the Russians have ships nearing completion with no engines, and apparently no replacement engines (I guess they should have thought about that before they invaded Crimea, huh?). So it's not just missiles but lots of other areas.
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IIRC Antonov is in Ukraine as well.
 
blackstar said:
I read a weird example just the other day. Apparently the newest Russian naval frigate uses gas turbine engines from Ukraine, which Ukraine will no longer provide. Thus the Russians have ships nearing completion with no engines, and apparently no replacement engines
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Sticking to the points and leaving aside the political comment...
From what has been explained to me elsewhere, the design of the engines was shared, dating back to the days of the USSR.
The production of certain key components of those engines was produced in Ukraine at Zorya Mashproekt, as well as final assembly of the entire engine. Some of the components were made in Russia. Such was the nature of things due to the USSR I guess. The Antonov An-70 suffers from the same affliction btw, with a large amount of components made in Russia.
Russia has the detailed design prints, it simply wasn't economical to shift production and manufacture to Russia before recent events.
NPO Saturn has been investing in replacing the Ukrainian produced components, as well as setting up the infrastructure for bench testing and final assembly. There have been announcements of contracts signed to this effect.
There are 3 engines in particular at the heart of this. The first engines are due to be delivered at the end of 2017, if I recall correctly.
Saturn, whilst concentrating of aviation and industrial gas turbines, has got a marine turbine in its stable, but it isn't sized to be used in the ships in question, the Grigorovich and Gorshkov class.
http://www.npo-saturn.ru/?sat=120

So, it looks like there will be replacement engines, but there will be a wait.
Maybe a Russian fellow forum member might correct me, or know more.
 
sferrin said:
What I think he's saying (and I tend to agree) is that Putin would rather hang onto them for their original purpose.
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Especially considering that with the combination of the political situation and SpaceX recovering the Falcon 9 booster, flying space payloads on Dneprs may soon be something nobody is willing to pay for. If that's the case, they may be useless as space launchers, but they'll still be useful for lobbing nukes.
 
Wasn't the point of Dnepr launching to burn off LV's that were nearing the end of their storage life? That, and arguably cheaper than to demonstrate demilitarization/recycling, and practical training for launch crews...

Considering there's been noises about doing stuff similar to Rokot and Dnepr via SLBM training launches, I suppose it might be possible for smallsats to ride again, but with the weird geopolitical ramifications of the crimea now, many potential customers can't ride on all russian launchers, which then favors US/European launchers, with a few smallsat launchers starting to come online, and super rideshare corncob flights for SpaceX now manifested.
 

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