R-7 Semyorka - Operational History

Operational History

The first strategic-missile unit became operational on 9 February 1959 at Plesetsk in north-west Russia. On 15 December 1959 the R-7 missile was tested at Plesetsk for the first time. The missiles were fully deployed by 1962.

Total service was limited to no more than ten nuclear armed missiles active at any time. A single launch pad was operational at Baikonur and from six to eight were in operation at Plesetsk.

The costs of the system were high, mostly due to the difficulty of constructing in remote areas the large launch sites required. At one point, each launch site was projected to cost 5% of the Soviet defence budget. However, these huge costs were not unique for a first generation missile and the US experienced similar problems.

Besides the cost, the missile system faced other operational challenges. With the U-2 overflights, the huge R-7 launch complexes could not be hidden and therefore could be expected to be destroyed quickly in any nuclear war. Also, the R-7 took almost twenty hours to prepare for launching, and it could not be left on alert for more than a day due to its cryogenic fuel system. Therefore, the Soviet force could not be kept on permanent alert, and could have been subject to an air strike before launching. Additionally the huge payload for which it was designed, adapted to early heavy H-bombs, became irrelevant with the coming of lighter bomb technology.

The limitations of the R-7 pushed the Soviet Union into rapidly developing second-generation missiles which would be more viable weapons systems. The R-7 was phased out from military service by 1968.

While the R-7 turned out to be impractical as a weapon, it became the basis for a series of Soviet expendable space launch vehicles. The derivatives of the R-7 missile became successful space launch vehicles, which are still being used in modified form.