UR-500 "Super" ICBM

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Delta Force

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The Proton is one of the world's most prominent heavy launch vehicle families. However, the rocket was originally planned as the UR-500 "super" ICBM, capable of delivering a 100 megaton warhead 13,000 kilometers away. That particular program was canceled due to the expense of building underground silos to house the massive missiles (Khrushchev quipped that they could either build communism or UR-500 silos), and the R-36/SS-18 Satan was selected to become the heavy ICBM of the Strategic Rocket Forces. A third stage was developed for the UR-500, and it became the Proton.

I'm wondering if anyone knows anything else about the UR-500, its planned warhead, and/or its planned silos. I've read that the launch pads for the Proton rocket were apparently constructed partially underground to help with development of the missile silos, but other than that there doesn't seem to be much more than general specifications for the missile.
 
The oldest story about the UR-500 ICBM
was to launch Nuclear warhead with 50 ~ 150 mega Ton load.

what killed the UR-500 concept was the gigantic cost of building the world biggest ICBM Silo.
With inner volume for ICBM of 50 meter deep and 8 meter in diameter
and that hundreds silos were needed.
 
The US Joint Chiefs Strategic Plan from 1965 makes mention of missiles called "SS Large" and "SS Small" being expected to be deployed alongside SS-7/8 and SS-9/10 missiles.

Unfortunately any details which might indicate size, performance, etc. have been redacted. However, given the timeframe it seems likely that "SS Small" is the UR-100. It's too early for "SS Large" to be R-36M, and the anticipated numbers are very small, so my guess is that it represents UR-500.

 
Michel Van said:
The oldest story about the UR-500 ICBM
was to launch Nuclear warhead with 50 ~ 150 mega Ton load.

what killed the UR-500 concept was the gigantic cost of building the world biggest ICBM Silo.
With inner volume for ICBM of 50 meter deep and 8 meter in diameter
and that hundreds silos were needed
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Also, the realization that 100 1 Megaton warheads will do far more damage than 1 100 Megaton warhead.
 
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publiusr said:
Maybe one for a Cheyenne Mountain Buster?
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Something like that is probably the only real application for the really huge weapons once you've got better accuracy than 'probably in the right county'. The US was sufficiently concerned about the possibility of very high yield weapons that a few exceptionally deep bunkers (DUCC, DUSC) were planned that would make Cheyenne Mountain look like a soft facility.
 
Those I'd love to see...how far down to be immune to GRBs and such?
 
Yellow Palace said:
DUSC was supposed to be 3,500 feet down in the Rockies to withstand a 100 MT groundburst.

DUCC might have been even deeper to withstand multiple 200-300 MT groundbursts or 100 MT earth penetrators.
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atomic-skies.blogspot.com

The Nation's Cockpit

Excursions into the history of atomic energy.
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So deep that it would take 3 300 megaton bombs with more accuracy then we have today inorder to dig it out.
 
Delta Force said:
. I've read that the launch pads for the Proton rocket were apparently constructed partially underground to help with development of the missile silos, but other than that there doesn't seem to be much more than general specifications for the missile.
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No, they are all above ground.
 

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Imagine the size of the rocket needed to lift such a heavy warhead. That would make it an extremely tempting target to an American first strike. And even in peacetime, all that rocket fuel and oxidizer in one place would be very dangerous.
 
UR-500 wasn’t a whole lot bigger than R-7…a hypergolic Saturn IB is how I envision it—though less of a bodge.

The strap-on fuel tanks attach to a central oxidizer “drum” with the engine half-under the fuel tank and the drum’s “rim.”

It is hard to support a pail of water on that flat bottom…the rim is stronger.

At least it didn’t need the elaborate but elegant pad R-7 has.

The largest mass produced hypergolic ICBM were of the SS-9 (R-36) family…Soviet Titan IIs you might say—but those never had anything like Gemini atop them unless I missed something.

There was scuttlebutt that R-7 was going to be used against Ukraine. That would be awful.
 
publiusr said:
UR-500 wasn’t a whole lot bigger than R-7…a hypergolic Saturn IB is how I envision it—though less of a bodge.
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Huh?
174 vs 112 feet
core diameter of 4.1 vs 2.95 meters?

Proton was more equivalent to Titan III
 
publiusr said:
The strap-on fuel tanks attach to a central oxidizer “drum” with the engine half-under the fuel tank and the drum’s “rim.”

It is hard to support a pail of water on that flat bottom…the rim is stronger.
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That is how most engines are attached
 
publiusr said:
There was scuttlebutt that R-7 was going to be used against Ukraine. That would be awful.
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Like, during the current war? I know they're still kicking around as Vostok/Soyuz/Molinya for space launch, but what on earth would the Russians want to launch at Ukraine with a museum piece like an R-7?
 

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