Zvezda Ballistic Missile Launcher Topol

The RT-2PM Topol, (NATO reporting name: SS-25 Sickle) , is a mobile intercontinental ballistic missile designed in the Soviet Union and in service with Russia’s Strategic Rocket Forces. The SS-25 is an intercontinental-range, road mobile, solid propellant ballistic missile system.

The Topol was the first fully road mobile ICBM commissioned by the Soviet Union. The development of the SS-25 was actually forbidden by the second Strategic Arms Limitations Treaty (SALT II), which prohibited the development of more than one new missile system.

 The SS-25 was officially developed as an updated SS-13 Mod 2, though it is actually a completely different missile design. The SS-25 entered development in 1971, with the first flight test occurring in 1982. The missile entered service in 1999, with 288 missiles deployed at nine sites by 1991. Production is believed to have ceased in 1994, with a total of 450 SS-25 missiles built. It was believed that in July 2002, there were 355 missiles with operational status. In July 2001 an RV flew several hundred km at 33 km (21 miles) altitude, suggesting that the RV was a hypersonic missile test or it had wings and a fitted moto