The Buran

cruise missile A cruise missile is a guided missile used against terrestrial or naval targets that remains in the atmosphere and flies the major portion of its flight path at approximately constant speed. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large warh ...

, designation RSS-40, was a

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

intercontinental cruise missile by

Myasishchev V. M. Myasishchev Experimental Design Bureau (Экспериментальный Машиностроительный Завод им. В. М. Мясищева) or OKB-23, founded in 1951 by MGB UdSSR Vladimir Myasishchev, was ...

capable of carrying a 3,500 kg

hydrogen bomb A thermonuclear weapon, fusion weapon or hydrogen bomb (H bomb) is a second-generation nuclear weapon design. Its greater sophistication affords it vastly greater destructive power than first-generation nuclear bombs, a more compact size, a lowe ...

payload. The project was canceled before flight tests began. It is unrelated to the later Buran reusable orbiter.

Development

The project was authorized on 20 May 1954, parallel to the development of the Burya missile. The development however, began in April 1953 as a rocket-aircraft system by

OKB with internal designation M-40. The project was canceled in November 1957, when two prototypes were just ready for flight testing, in favor of the

R-7 Semyorka The R-7 Semyorka (russian: link=no, Р-7 Семёрка), officially the GRAU index 8K71, was a Soviet missile developed during the Cold War, and the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile. The R-7 made 28 launches between 1957 and 1 ...

, since

ICBM An intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) is a ballistic missile with a range greater than , primarily designed for nuclear weapons delivery (delivering one or more thermonuclear warheads). Conventional, chemical, and biological weapons ...

s were considered unstoppable. Like the Burya, the Buran consisted of two stages, the booster rockets designated M-41, and the cruise missile stage designated M-42.

Specifications

General characteristics

*Function: Nuclear cruise missile *Launch mass: 125000 kg *Total length: 24.0 m *Launch platform: Launch pad *Status: Canceled before first flight tests

Launch vehicle (M-41)

*Engine: 4× RD-213 *Thrust: 4× 55 t *Length: 19.1 m *Diameter: 1.20 m *Oxidizer:

Liquid oxygen Liquid oxygen—abbreviated LOx, LOX or Lox in the aerospace, submarine and gas industries—is the liquid form of molecular oxygen. It was used as the oxidizer in the first liquid-fueled rocket invented in 1926 by Robert H. Goddard, an app ...

*Combustible:

Kerosene Kerosene, paraffin, or lamp oil is a combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in aviation as well as households. Its name derives from el, κηρός (''keros'') meaning " wax", and was re ...

Cruise missile (M-42)

*Engine: 1× RD-020 ramjet *Speed : Mach 3.1–3.2 *Range: 8,500 km *Flight altitude: 18–20 km *Warhead:

thermonuclear Thermonuclear fusion is the process of atomic nuclei combining or “fusing” using high temperatures to drive them close enough together for this to become possible. There are two forms of thermonuclear fusion: ''uncontrolled'', in which the re ...

, 3500 kg *Length: 23.3 m *Diameter: 2.40 m *Wing span: 11.6 m *Wing area: 98 m²

Comparable missiles

SM-62 Snark The Northrop SM-62 Snark is an early-model intercontinental range ground-launched cruise missile that could carry a W39 thermonuclear warhead. The Snark was deployed by the United States Air Force's Strategic Air Command from 1958 through 1961 ...

SM-64 Navaho The North American SM-64 Navaho was a supersonic intercontinental cruise missile project built by North American Aviation (NAA). The final design was capable of delivering a nuclear weapon to the USSR from bases within the US, while cruising at ...

* Burya

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buran (Missile) RSS-040