Topol M, Russia

Topol-M (Nato code name: SS-27) is an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) in service with the Russian strategic rocket forces (RVSN). It was developed by the Moscow Institute of Thermal Technology (MITT) and is an upgraded version of the RS-12M Topol missile.
 Topol-M is the first ICBM developed by Russia after the breakup of Soviet Union. The missile is being launched from underground silos. The Russian Army plans to deploy about 300 missiles on transporter erector and launcher (TEL) vehicles too.
Two Topol-M silo-based missile systems were deployed in December 2010 in the Tatishchevo Missile Division near Saratov in southwest Russia.
About 52 silo-based and 18 mobile Topol-M missile systems were in service as of January 2011. A total of 450 to 500 missiles are expected to be deployed between 2015 and 2020.

Topol-M ICBM development

The development of Topol-M was initiated by the MITT and Yuzhnoye Design Bureau in late 1980s. The Ukrainian firm Yuzhnoye withdrew from the programme and all documentation was shifted to MITT in 1992, following the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
The missile development was consolidated inside Russia. The programme was approved by the Russian government in 1993. The producers consortium led by MITT included about 500 Russian firms. The final assembly was made at the Votkinsk Mechanical Plant.
The first missile was test fired in December 1994. The first silo-based regiment was declared operational in 1998. The system was officially accepted into service in April 2000.
The first test of the mobile launcher was conducted in April 2004. The first flight version of the missile was delivered to the Russian Federation in 1995.
The first three mobile Topol-M missile systems entered service with a missile unit stationed near the town of Teykovo in December 2006. RS-24, a multiwarhead variant of Topol-M missile, was test fired from the northern launch site in May 2007. The missile variant is capable of carrying multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle (MIRV) warheads.

Topol-M intercontinental ballistic missile system features

The Topol-M is a three-stage solid-propellant ICBM. It carries a single nuclear warhead under US-Russian arms control treaties. The design can support MIRV warheads. The missile can reach a range of 11,000km at a speed of 17,400km/h.
The missile is cold launched using a special booster called PAD which allows the first stage to fire into air by pushing out the missile from the storage container. The motors for the first stage were developed by the Soyuz Federal Centre for Dual-Use Technologies.
Topol-M is directed by autonomous digital inertial navigation system using an onboard GLONASS receiver. The burn time of the engine was minimised to avoid detection by the present and future missile-launch surveillance satellites during boost phase. The missile carries targeting countermeasures and decoys.
It can perform evasive manoeuvres in terminal phase to avoid the hit of interceptor missiles. The flat ballistic trajectory of the missile complicates the interception by the anti-ballistic missile (ABM).
The missile is shielded against radiation, electromagnetic pulse (EMP) and nuclear blasts, and can withstand a hit from laser technology.

Missile launch platform

The silo-based missile deployment site includes ten isolated silos. The underground silos were originally developed for R-36M and UR-100N missiles. The high cost elements such as protective covers and control systems were retained with minor changes. The missile uses the existing launch control and communication systems.
The underground site consists of a command and control bunker, security, power supply and nuclear blast detection systems. The launch complex was designed to survive hits from high-precision conventional weapons.
The Topol-M mobile missile is fired from a transporter erector launcher (TEL) canister mounted on the MZKT-79921 cross-country, a modified eight-axle mobile launch vehicle. The TEL was developed by the Titan Central Design Bureau and produced at the Barrikady Plant.
The mobile launcher can launch the missile at any time, even on a rough terrain route. The chassis is fitted with jacks to level the launcher. The onboard gas and hydraulic systems maintain the elevation of the container.

Unha-3 Rocket,Nord Korea

The Unha or Eunha is a Nord Korean expendable carrier rocket, which partially utilizes the same delivery system as the  Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile.
Western analysts believe the Unha-3 is a hybrid of Soviet and Iranian design, derived from the Taepodong-2 missile that North Korea began developing in the 1990s, but which has never successfully launched. No one in the West knows how much of the latest rocket and its engines were actually built inside North Korea.
North Korea has been rolling out ballistic missiles since the 1970s, when it first got Soviet Scud-B launchers from Egypt in return for help in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war. The first North Korean-built missiles—essentially Scud copies—were developed in the 1980s and were called the Hwasong-5 and the Hwasong-6.
By 1990, North Korea had produced an upgraded version called the Nodong, which had a longer range and greater payload capacity. (It was the Nodong that alarmed the West on July 4, 2009, when North Korea fired off seven of them from its east coast.) Next came the two-stage Taepodong-1 rocket (using a Hwasong atop a Nodong), which could deliver a one-ton payload up to 1,500 miles.

 

In August 1998, in North Korea’s first orbital attempt, a Taeopodong-1 with an additional third stage lifted off with a small satellite called Kwangmhyongsong-1 (“Bright Star 1”). The launch failed when the third stage didn’t ignite. North Korea then began working on a successor missile, called Taepodong-2, which launched only once, in July 2006; the missile blew up 40 seconds after launch. (An additional missile, called Taepodong-X, has not been tested, and little is known about it.)

The 91-ton, 100-foot-tall Unha-3 is a slightly modified version of the Unha-2 that North Korea launched eastward in 2009, a liftoff condemned by the United Nations Security Council, which considered it a ballistic missile test and soon thereafter tightened economic sanctions on the country. That orbital attempt—North Korea’s second—also ended in failure when the rocket’s third stage failed to ignite and fell into the Pacific Ocean.
The Unha-3’s first stage, about eight feet in diameter, appears to be made of steel and weighs about 60 tons, says Wright. “We’re pretty sure the first-stage engine is a Soviet design,” a scaled up version of the engine used in the Scud-B design, he says. It burns kerosene and nitric acid. The first stage has four such engines that share a common fuel tank.
The slimmer second stage is “a much more advanced design,” Wright says, that is identical to the submarine-launched Soviet R-27 ballistic missile, called the SS-N-6 in the United States. That stage has three engines: a main one for propulsion and two smaller ones for steering. “It’s not clear to me that they know how to build that engine,” says Wright. It burns a toxic, volatile, clear liquid fuel known as UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine) and nitrogen tetroxide. The Soviets first deployed he SS-N-6 in 1968. North Korea got some in the 1990s and modified them for use as intermediate-range missiles.

 The third stage appears to be identical to the upper stage of the Iranian Safir-2 booster, which Iran used to put a small satellite into orbit in February 2009. The Safir-2 uses the small steering motors from the SS-N-6 for propulsion.

Function	Expendable carrier rocket
Manufacturer	Korean Committee of Space Technology
Size
Height	32.01 metres (105.0 ft)
Diameter	2.41 metres (7 ft 11 in)
Mass	85,000 kilograms (190,000 lb)
Stages	3

Launch history
Status	Active
Launch sites	Sohae,Tonghae
Total launches	3
Successes	1

First stage
Engines	4 Nodong 2-1
Thrust	1100 kN
Specific impulse	252 sec
Burn time	120 seconds
Fuel	IRFNA,UDMH

Second stage
Engines	unknown
Thrust	250 kN
Specific impulse	255 s
Burn time	110 seconds
Fuel	IRFNA / UDMH

Third stage
Engines	unknown
Thrust	54 KN
Specific Impulse	230 sec
Burn time	40 seconds
Fuel	Unknown