The first Soviet rocket study unit was established in June 1946, by redesignating the 92nd
Guards Mortar Regiment at
Bad Berka in
East Germany as the 22nd Brigade for Special Use of the
Reserve of the Supreme High Command. On October 18, 1947, the brigade conducted the first launch of the remanufactured former German
A-4 ballistic missile, or
R-1, from the
Kapustin Yar Range. In the early 1950s the 77th and 90th Brigades were formed to operate the R-1 (SS-1a 'Scunner'). The 54th and 56th Brigades were formed to conduct test launches of the
R-2 (SS-2 'Sibling') at Kapustin Yar on June 1, 1952. The 5th Scientific Research Proving Ground was established in 1955 in
Kzyl-Orda Oblast at the town of Zarya later Leninsk, and finally in 1995
Baikonur. Also established that year was the 43rd Independent Scientific Experimental Station (
Klyuchi,
Kamchatka Krai) as an outstation of the Baikonur test site. Two years later "Object Angara" was formed at
Plesetsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast, which after another name change in 1959 eventually became the
53rd Scientific Research Proving Ground in 1963. From 1959 the Soviets introduced a number of
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) into service, including the
R-7 (SS-6 'Sapwood'), the
R-16 (SS-7 'Saddler'), the
R-9 (SS-8 'Sasin'), the
R-26 (given the NATO reporting name SS-8 'Sasin' due to incorrect identification as the R-9), the
R-36 (SS-9 'Scarp'), and the
RT-21 (SS-16 'Sinner'), which was possibly never made fully operational. By 1990 all early types of missiles had been retired from service. In 1990, the Strategic Missile Forces were officially established as a service branch of the Armed Forces under the direct control of the Defense Ministry. The date of its formal foundation, December 17, is celebrated as Strategic Missile Forces Day. Two rocket armies were formed in 1960. The
43rd Rocket Army and the
50th Rocket Army were formed from the previous 43rd and 50th Air Armies of the
Long Range Aviation. During a test of the
R-16 ICBM on October 24, 1960, the test missile exploded on the pad, killing the first commander of the SRF,
Chief Marshal of Artillery
Mitrofan Ivanovich Nedelin. This disaster, the details of which were concealed for decades, became known as the
Nedelin catastrophe. He was succeeded by
Marshal of the Soviet Union Kirill Moskalenko who was in turn quickly succeeded by Marshal
Sergey Biryuzov. Marshal
Nikolai Krylov took over in March 1963 and served until February 1972. During this time French President
Charles de Gaulle visited the Strategic Missile Forces in 1966. Together with NI Krylov, he visited a missile division in Novosibirsk, and then at the invitation of Leonid Brezhnev participated in a demonstration missile launch at the
Baikonur Cosmodrome in the
Kazakh SSR. Chief Marshal of Artillery Vladimir Fedorovich Tolubko commanded the SRF from April 12, 1972, to July 10, 1985. Tolubko emphasised raising the physical fitness standards within the SRF and in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Strategic Rocket Forces began to field the new UR-100 (SS-11 'Sego') and UR-100N (SS-19 'Stilleto') ICBMs beginning with the
43rd Rocket Army in the
Ukrainian SSR, providing them with longer range and more accurate missiles. He was succeeded by General of the Army Yury Pavlovich Maksimov, who was in command from July 10, 1985, to August 19, 1992. According to a 1980
TIME Magazine article citing analysts from
RAND Corporation,
Soviet non-Slavs were generally barred from joining the Strategic Rocket Forces because of suspicions about the loyalty of ethnic minorities to the state. Those who served in the Strategic Rocket Forces had better quality of living, food and also higher salaries than the ones paid to those serving in the
Soviet Army. The majority of new recruits has, since its inception, consisted of mainly college and university graduates. In 1989 the Strategic Rocket Forces had over 1,400 ICBMs, 300 launch control centers, and twenty-eight missile bases. The RSVN operated
RSD-10 (SS-20 'Saber') intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and
R-12 (SS-4 'Sandal') medium-range ballistic missiles (MRBMs). Two-thirds of the road-mobile Soviet RSD-10 force was based in the western Soviet Union and was aimed at Western Europe. One-third of the force was located east of the Ural Mountains and was targeted primarily against China. Older R-12 missiles were deployed at fixed sites in the western Soviet Union. The
Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, signed in December 1987, called for the elimination of all 553 Soviet RSD-10 and R-12 missiles within three years. As of mid-1989, over 50% of RSD-10 and R-12 missiles had been eliminated. By 1990 the Soviet Union had seven types of operational ICBMs. About 50% were heavy
R-36M (SS-18 'Satan') and
UR-100N (SS-19 'Stiletto') ICBMs, which carried 80% of the country's land-based ICBM warheads. By this time it was producing new mobile, and hence survivable ICBMs, the
RT-23 (SS-24 'Scalpel') and
RT-2PM (SS-25 'Sickle'). In 1990, with the R-12 apparently fully retired, the IISS reported that there were 350
UR-100s (SS-11 'Sego,' Mod 2/3), 60
RT-2s (SS-13 'Savage') still in service in one missile field, 75
UR-100MRs (SS-17 'Spanker,' Mod 3, with 4 MIRV), 308 R-36Ms (mostly Mod 4 with 10 MIRV), 320 UR-100Ns (mostly Mod 3 with 6 MIRV), some 60 RT-23s (silo and rail-mobile), and some 225 RT-2PMs (mobile).
Composition of the Strategic Missile Forces 1960–1991 RSVN training establishments included: • the
Peter the Great Military Academy of the Strategic Missile Forces in Moscow; • the Military Engineering Red Banner Institute named after A.F. Mozhayskiy (VIKI) in Leningrad; • the Kharkov Higher Military Command Engineering School Missile Forces named after Marshal of the Soviet Union N.I. Krylov • the Krasnodar Higher Military Command Engineering School Missile Forces (KVVKIU) (1982–1998) • the
Perm Higher Military Command Engineering Red Banner School Missile Forces (
:ru:Пермский военный институт ракетных войск) • the
Riga Higher Military Political Red Banner School named after Marshal of the Soviet Union S.S. Biryuzov (under the SRF from 1959 to 1993) • the Rostov Higher Military Command Engineering School Missile Forces (RVVKIU) (1959 onwards) • the
Saratov Higher Military Command and Engineering School of Missile Forces (1959–2003 & 2024 onwards) • the Serpukhov Higher Military Command Engineering School Missile Forces named after the Leninskiy Komsomol (SVVKU)
Post Soviet Union Like most of the Russian Armed Forces, the Strategic Missile Forces had limited access to resources for new equipment in the
Yeltsin era. However, the Russian government made a priority of ensuring that the Missile Forces received new missiles to phase out older, less-reliable systems, and to incorporate newer capabilities in the face of international threats to the viability of the nuclear deterrent effect provided by their missiles. In particular the development of missile defense systems in the United States. In 1995, the "Strategic Missile Forces Day" and "Military Space Forces Day" were created. On July 16, 1997, President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree incorporating the
Russian Space Forces and the Space Missile Defence Forces (Russian: Ракетно-космической обороны) into the SMT. In doing so, 'nearly 60' military units and establishments were dissolved. However, four years later, on June 1, 2001, the
Russian Space Forces were reformed as a separate branch of service from the SMT.
Minister of Defence Marshal of the Russian Federation
Igor Sergeev, a former commander of the SMT from August 19, 1992 – May 22, 1997, played a major role in assuring funding for his former service. He was succeeded by General of the Army
Vladimir Yakovlev, who commanded the SMT from June 1997 until April 27, 2001. Yakovlev was succeeded by
Colonel General Nikolay Solovtsov. In the early 2000s, Chief of the General Staff Army General
Anatoly Kvashnin decided to downgrade the status of the Strategic Missile Forces from a branch of the armed forces to an independent combat arm. This was completed despite the opposition of Defense Minister Marshal Igor Sergeyev. Solovtsov was dismissed in July–August 2009. Speculation over why Solovtsov was dismissed included opposition to further cuts in deployed nuclear ballistic missile warheads below the April 2009 figure of 1,500, the fact that he had reached the retirement age of 60, despite that he had recently been extended another year's service, or the failure of the
Navy's Bulava missile). After only a year,
Lieutenant General Andrey Shvaichenko, appointed on August 3, 2009, by President
Dmitry Medvedev, was replaced. The current commander of the Strategic Missile Forces, Colonel General
Sergey Karakayev, was appointed to the post by a presidential decree of June 22, 2010. The RVSN headquarters has a special sledgehammer that can be used to gain access to the launch codes if the commander feels the need to use it or if ordered directly, but does not have normal access to the safe. In 2020, the Strategic Missile Forces completed switching to digital information transmission technology. ==Composition==