The R-29RM (, NATO reporting name SS-N-23 Skiff) was a liquid propellant,

submarine-launched ballistic missile A submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM) is a ballistic missile capable of being launched from Ballistic missile submarine, submarines. Modern variants usually deliver multiple independently targetable reentry vehicles (MIRVs), each of which ...

in use by the

Russian Navy The Russian Navy is the Navy, naval arm of the Russian Armed Forces. It has existed in various forms since 1696. Its present iteration was formed in January 1992 when it succeeded the Navy of the Commonwealth of Independent States (which had i ...

. It had the alternate Russian designations RSM-54 and

GRAU index The Main Missile and Artillery Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (), commonly referred to by its transliterated acronym GRAU (), is a department of the Russian Ministry of Defense. It is subordinate to the Chief of ...

3M27. It was designed to be launched from the Delta-class submarine, Delta IV submarine, each of which is capable of carrying 16 missiles. The R-29RM could carry four 100 kiloton warheads and had a range of about . They were replaced with the newer R-29RMU Sineva, R-29RMU2 Sineva and later with the enhanced variant R-29RMU2 Layner, R-29RMU2.1 Layner.

History

Development

Development of the R-29RM started in 1979 at the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau. The navy accepted the armament in 1986 and subsequently installed the D-9RM launch system consisting of a cluster of 16 R-29RM on board the nuclear-propelled Delta-class submarine, Project 667BDRM submarines.

Operation Behemoth

On 6 August 1991 at 21:09, K-407 , under the command of Captain Second Rank Sergey Yegorov (submarine commander), Sergey Yegorov, became the world's only submarine to successfully launch an all-missile salvo, launching 16 R-29RM (RSM-54) ballistic missiles of the total weight of almost 700 tons in 244 seconds (operation code name Operation Behemoth, "Behemoth-2"). All the missile hit their designated targets at the Kura Missile Test Range in Kamchatka.

Space launch vehicle

Several R-29RM were retrofitted as Shtil', Shtil' carrier rockets to be launched by Delta-class submarines, the submarines being mobile can send a payload directly into a Sun-synchronous orbit, heliosynchronous orbit, notably used by imaging satellites. Outside the confines of the Russian military, this capability has been used commercially to place three out of four Microsatellite (spaceflight), microsatellites into a low Earth orbit with one cancellation assigned to the Baikonur Cosmodrome for better financial terms.

End of service

The last boat carrying R-29RM, K-51 , went into refit to be rearmed with the newer R-29RMU Sineva on 23 August 2010.

Operators

Former operators

; *

(1992-2010) ; * Soviet Navy (1986-1991)

References

External links

CSIS Missile Threat SS-N-23IDB RSM-54 (R-29RM) 3M37, SS-N-23 "Skiff" (Russian)

at the Center for Defense Information Cold War submarine-launched ballistic missiles of the Soviet Union Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau Military equipment introduced in the 1980s {{Missile-stub de:R-29#R-29RM