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Soviet Union [USSR] Strategic Rocket Forces
The Strategic Rocket Forces, the newest Soviet armed service,
in 1989 were the preeminent armed service, based on the continued
importance of their mission. Their prestige had diminished
somewhat, however, because of an increasing emphasis on
conventional forces.
The Strategic Rocket Forces were the main Soviet force used for
attacking an enemy's offensive nuclear weapons, its military
facilities, and its industrial infrastructure. They operated all
Soviet ground-based intercontinental, intermediate-range, and
medium-range nuclear missiles with ranges over 1,000 kilometers.
The Strategic Rocket Forces also conducted all Soviet space vehicle
and missile launches.
In 1989 the 300,000 Soviet soldiers in the Strategic Rocket
Forces were organized into six rocket armies comprised of three to
five divisions, which contained regiments of ten missile launchers
each. Each missile regiment had 400 soldiers in security,
transportation, and maintenance units above ground. Officers manned
launch stations and command posts underground.
In 1989 the Strategic Rocket Forces had over 1,400
intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), 300 launch control
centers, and twenty-eight missile bases. The Soviet Union had six
types of operational ICBMs; about 50 percent were heavy SS-18 and
SS-19 ICBMs, which carried 80 percent of the country's land-based
ICBM warheads. In 1989 the Soviet Union was also producing new
mobile, and hence survivable, ICBMS. A reported 100 road-mobile SS25 missiles were operational, and the rail-mobile SS-24 was being
deployed.
The Strategic Rocket Forces also operated SS-20 intermediaterange ballistic missiles (IRBMs) and SS-4 medium-range ballistic
missiles (MRBMs). Two-thirds of the road-mobile Soviet SS-20 force
was based in the western Soviet Union and was aimed at Western
Europe. One-third was located east of the Ural Mountains and was
targeted primarily against China. Older SS-4 missiles were deployed
at fixed sites in the western Soviet Union. The Intermediate-Range
Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty), signed in December 1987, called
for the elimination of all 553 Soviet SS-20 and SS-4 missiles
within three years
(see Soviet Union USSR - Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Arms Control
, ch. 17). As of mid-1989, over 50 percent of SS-20 and SS-4
missiles had been eliminated.
Data as of May 1989
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