Rare footage of a Soviet railway-based nuclear missile has appeared online.
Since we’re doing nuclear train things, the rail version of the SS-24 Scalpel had an inflatable nose cone. @nuclearkatie @NuclearAnthro @SmittySec pic.twitter.com/5y6pVcEXv9
— Chase (@ChalexTheGreat) March 9, 2021
The Drive portal drew attention to a fragment of a video about the Soviet RT-23 UTTH ICBM "Well Done" (in the NATO classification SS-24 Scalpel), published on March 9 on Twitter. The author recalls that the Soviet Union was the only country that created a railway mobile intercontinental ballistic missile.
Not everyone knows that she had one very unusual feature. The fairing of the head of the rocket was inflatable (in later versions, folding). The fact is that the ICBM was longer than a standard railway car. However, the designers found a solution that allows you to place it there, preserving the aerodynamic properties of the rocket after launch. The actual process of inflating the tip of the ICBM is captured on video.
The portal observer suggests that a battery was used to increase the internal pressure, which, in turn, led to the deployment of a corrugated metal internal structure that forms a conical shape.
Oleg Koryakin