R-26 / "SS-8 SASIN"
The R-26 (8K66) missile was one of the first strategic missiles of the second generation with integrated fuel tanks. The development of this R-26 missile was approved on 23 May 1960 and KB Yuzhnoye (OKB-586) was the leading developer. The flight-design tests were supposed to begin in December 1961, but development of the R-26 was halted by governmental order on 09 July 1962. The reason for the suspension of the development were partly technical and lay partly in design bureau rivalries concerning the development of a light liquid propellant missile. NPO Mashinotroyeniya (OKB-52) successfully proposed the development of the UR-100 missile known as SS-11 SEGO.
After it had been cancelled, examples of the R-26 were paraded in Red Square, and identified in the West as the SS-8 SASIN. In fact, the entirely unrelated R-9A missile was the deployed SS-8 SASIN. It is not apparent at what point Western intelligence understood that the missile shown on parades in Red Square in Moscow and the missiles actually deployed elsewhere in Russia were in fact different and entirely unrelated missiles.
Specifications
DIA
Mistaken for SS-8/R-9,R-9A
NATO
Sasin mistaken for SS-8/R-9, R-9A
Bilateral
N/A
Service
Not deployed
OKB/Industry
R-26, 8K66
Design Bureau
OKB-586 (Acad. M. K. Yangel)
Approved
5/23/1960
Years of R&D
Engineering and Testing
1960-1961
First Flight Test
Project canceled 07/09/1962
IOC
Not operational
Deployment Date
Not deployed
Type of Warhead
Single
Warheads
1
Yield (Mt)
5
Payload (t)
3-3.500
Total length (m)
24.38
Total length w/o warhead (m)
22
Missile Diameter (m)
2.75
Launch Weight (t)
85-87
Fuel Weight (t)
Range (km)
10,500-11,000-12,000
CEP (m) (Russian Sources)
1,500-2,000
CEP (m) Western Sources)
?
Number of Stages
2
Canister length (m)
N/A
Canister length w/o
front meters (m)
N/A
Canister diameter (m)
N/A
Booster guidance system
Inertial
1st stage
2nd stage
Length (m)
11.4
10.05
Body diameter (m)
2.75
2.4
Fueled weight (t)
Dry weight (t)
Engine Designation
RD-216 (11D614)
Z-RD-?
configuration
two engine cluster
1 engine
Design Bureau
Acad. V. P. Glushko OKB-456
Yuzhnoy?
Years of R & D
1958-1960
Propellants
Liquid Storable
Liquid Storable
Fuel
UDMH
UDMH
Oxidizer
AT=AK-27P,= Nitrogen tetroxide, N204 in N02
AT=AK-27P,= Nitrogen tetroxide, N204 in N02
Burning time (sec.)
120
160
Thrust Sea Level/Vacuum (Tonnes)
151.499/177.9115
43.65 vacuum
Specific Impulse Sea Level/Vacuum (sec.)
248/291.3
Basing Mode
Soft site and Silo
Hardness
Launching Technique
Hot launch
Deployed boosters
0
Test Boosters
Warheads Deployed
0
Deployment Sites
Training Launchers
Space Booster Variant
N/A
Sources and Resources
- Russian Strategic Nuclear Weapons, Pavel Podvig, ed., IzdAT, Moscow, 1998, 492 pp. (in Russian). Authors: Oleg Bukharin, Timur Kadyshev, Eugene Miasnikov, Pavel Podvig, Igor Sutiagin, Maxim Tarasenko, Boris Zhelesov
- R-26 @ Encyclopedia Astronautica by Mark Wade
