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R-13 / SS-N-4 SARK

The R-13 was a single-stage storable liquid-propellant missile with a separable monoblock reentry vehicle. Equipped with a single combustion chamber rocket engine with turbopumps, it had a four-chamber flight control engine. The R-13 was the first Soviet SLBM to use such vernier engines for flight control instead of gas or aerodynamic control surfaces. Additionally, to stabilize the missile in early flight, four aerodynamic stabilizers were used. These were considerably smaller than the fins used on the R-11FM. The SS-N-4 could deliver a 2800-lb reentry vehicle a maximum operational range of 300 nm. The reentry vehicle had a nuclear warhead with a yield estimated in the west at 1.2 to 2.0 MT, though Russian sources place the yield at 1.0 MT. It had an inertial guidance system and a CEP of 1 to 2 nm according to western intelligence estimates.

Western intelligence in the 1960s was evidently somewhat confused by the relationship between the R-11FM and R-13 programs. Despite the significant differences in the physical designs of these missiles, the R-11FM was regarded as simply the interim reduced-range version of the longer range R-13 follow-on.

The short range of the R-11FM missiles rendered submarines armed with this missile vulnerable to antisubmarine defense systems, highlighing the need for a longer-range system. On 25 August 1955 the governmental ordered the development of a sea-based ballistic missile with a range of 400-600 km carrying a nuclear warhead. The D-2 launch system with R-13 missiles was authorized on 11 January 1956. In early 1956 OKB-1 NII-88 finished the the preliminary design, after which the project was transferred TO SKB-385, which conducted all further activities. The design was completed in 1957 and in December 1958 the engine tests of the R-13 missile began. Between June 1959 and March I960 flight tests of the R-13 on fixed and dynamic platforms were conducted on the State Central Training Site in Kapustin Yar. Submarine tests began in November 1959 and were completed in August 1960. Altogether 15 out of 19 launches were successfully carried out at the training site and 11 out 13 on submarines. During the time the R-13 missile was deployed (1960-1972) 225 out of 311 launches were conducted successfully.

The D-2 launch system and the R-13 missiles were deployed on 13 October 1961 on 629-class Golf and 658-class Hotel submarines. Several improvements were implemented thereafter, with the missiles' combat readiness increased from three to six months, and depot storage time was increased to seven years. The SS-N-4 was believed to have been assigned both a peripheral and an intercontinental mission in the past. Peak operational deployment was reached in 1962, with phase-out from the intercontinental mission beginning in 1964 and phaseout from the peripheral mission beginning in 1967. By 1973 the missile was believed to be assigned only a peripheral mission and was carried only aboard the Golf-I Class diesel-electric submarine, which required surfacing before missile launch. The normal reaction time is 20 to 25 minutes. The reaction time under conditions of peak alert is six to eight minutes, and the allowable hold time under these conditions is about one hour.

Sources and Resources

• "A History of Strategic Arms Competition 1945-1972" (U), Volume 3, A Handbook Of Selected Soviet Weapon and Space Systems, United States Air Force, June 1976. pgs 276-281
• 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

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