ballistic missile at the Kapustin Yar proving ground
Overview The 4th Missile Test Range "Kapustin Yar" was established by a decree of the
Soviet government in "
On Questions of Jet Propelled Weapons" on 13 May 1946. The test range was created in the desert north end of the Astrakhan region under the supervision of Lieutenant General
Vasily Ivanovich Voznyuk, who served as commander of the range from 1946 until 1973. The first rocket was launched from the site on 18 October 1947; it was one of eleven German
A-4s that had been captured. As of 1959, Kapustin Yar was the only publicly known Soviet missile test range. Non-Soviet observers believed at first that
Sputnik 1 and
Sputnik 2 launched from the site. With the further growth and development, Kapustin Yar became a
cosmodrome, serving this function since 1966. The rate of space launches was very low, usually 1–2 a year, and during the Soviet era it hosted only the two smallest launch vehicles: the R-12 and R-14 derived Kosmos boosters. There were no space launches from 1988 to 1998. The town of Znamensk was established to support the scientists working on the facilities, their families, and supporting personnel. Initially, this was a
secret city, not shown on maps and requiring official permission to visit.
Creation On 3 June 1947, by the Resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU (b) No. 2642–817, Kapustin Yar was designated as the location of the new rocket test site. Voznyuk was appointed head of the training ground. The first officers arrived at the future training ground on 20 August 1947. In September 1947, a special brigade of the Reserve of the Supreme Main Command, Major General of Artillery, arrived from Germany with
A. F. Tveretsky (the 22nd BON RVGK since 1950), plus two special trains with equipment taken from Germany. By the beginning of October 1947, in addition to the concrete test stand and
bunker at the first site, a launch site with a bunker, a temporary technical position, and an installation building were built. Additionally, a highway and a 20-kilometer railway line connecting the site with the main highway to
Stalingrad (
Volgograd) were built. Site housing was not constructed until 1948. Until then, builders and testers lived in
tents,
dugouts, temporary buildings, and peasant
izba in the village of Kapustin Yar. By 1 October 1947, Voznyuk reported the site was ready for launching rockets. On 14 October 1947, the first batch of
V-2 rockets arrived at the test site. On 18 October 1947 at 10:47 Moscow time, the first launch of
ballistic missile in the USSR was made. From 18 October to 13 November 1947, eleven V-2 rockets were launched; seven achieved the targeted range (two with a large deviation from the set trajectory) and four failed. From 1947 to 1957, Kapustin Yar was the only place to test Soviet ballistic missiles, including the
R-1 (September–October 1948, September–October 1949),
R-2 (September–October 1949),
R-5 Pobeda (March 1953),
R-12 Dvina, and
R-14 Chusovaya, among others. During 1957–1959, the intercontinental
cruise missile "
Burya" started at the Kapustin Yar proving ground. On 2 September 1959, the
R-12 became the first missile launched from a
missile silo. In June 1951, the State R&D Test Range No 8 (GNIIP-8, "test range S") was established at Kapustin Yar.
Photo-reconnaissance flights Western intelligence services learned about the existence of the test site from German scientists returning to their homeland. For additional intelligence gathering, in August 1953, a specially-trained
Royal Air Force reconnaissance
Canberra (Canberra PR3, tail number WH726) was equipped with a unique
Robin camera. The aircraft was launched from
Giebelstadt Air Base and flew over the
Volga at an altitude of more than 20 km, then approached Kapustin Yar. The MiGs raised in alarm could only slightly damage the aircraft. After taking a photo of the site, the Canberra crossed the
Caspian Sea and landed in
Tabriz, Iran. As a result of the flight, photographs of secret objects at the site were obtained. The success of the operation gave impetus to the development of satellite and aerial photography programs to obtain pictures of military facilities in the USSR and other socialist countries.
Nuclear tests and satellite launches According to open data, since the 1950s, at least 11
nuclear explosions have been conducted at the Kapustin Yar test site (between altitudes of 300 m and 5.5 km), the total capacity of which is approximately 65 times the atomic bombs dropped on
Hiroshima. From 1957 to 1961, five low-yield (10–40 kilotons) atmospheric
nuclear tests were performed over the site. In addition to nuclear tests, 24,000 guided missiles were exploded in Kapustin Yar, 177 samples of military equipment were tested, and 619
RSD-10 Pioneer missiles were destroyed. On 20 May 1960, the Training Center of the Rocket Forces of the Ground Forces was established on the territory of the State Landfill. The Center was tasked with creating combat coherence of missile troops, training and retraining rocket specialists, and creating regulatory documents for all-round missile combat activities troops of the Ground Forces. On 16 March 1962, Kapustin Yar became a
cosmodrome with the launch of the
Kosmos 1 satellite. Subsequently, small research satellites were launched from Kapustin Yar on light
Kosmos rockets. In subsequent years, many short- and medium-range missiles, cruise missiles, complexes, and air defense missiles were tested at the test site.
Recent years On 8 January 1992, during a trip to
Saratov Oblast, President
Boris Yeltsin made a statement on the issue of the restoration of the
Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, proposing that
Soviet Germans move to Kapustin Yar instead of their legitimate territory: "...and let this land, which is filled with shells, may they cultivate it... There may be some such region in some future and there will be, or there may be some such national Volga region Germans, but only when there will be 90 percent of Germans". In 1994, the 4 GPC
Russian Ministry of Defence entered the test site
Air Defense Forces. In October 1998, the 4th State Central Polygon was transformed into the 4th State Central Interspecific Polygon. In 1998, the "
Sary-Shagan" test site (located in south-eastern Kazakhstan and rented by Russia) was removed from the
Air Defense troops and reassigned to the 4th State Central Interspecific polygon. In 1999, Russian troops were redeployed to the Kapustin Yar test site from the 11th State Research Test Site of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
Emba (
ru), due to the dismantling of the latter. In 2008, Russia carried out 27 launches, surpassing its figure for 2007 and setting the highest number worldwide. Most (19 / 27) launches were performed from the
Baikonur cosmodrome; six from the
Plesetsk space launch center in
Arkhangelsk Oblast; one from the
Dombarovsky Air Base in
Orenburg Oblast; and one from the Kapustin Yar test site. On 9 July 2024, Ukrainian drones struck the missile testing facility at Kapustin Yar. Footage showed a building being struck and exploding. Russian officials claimed all 20 drones were shot down, while one black painted Ukrainian
Bober drone crashed landed in a field. Subsequent satellite images showed scorch marks at the facility. On 8 February 2026, the Ukrainian General Staff claimed to have struck the Russian test range at Kapustin Yar using
FP-5 Flamingo missiles. ==Missile tests and launches==