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Subject: Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??
Military Strength    4/15/2004 9:37:38 AM
I understand the topol m ss 27 is the most sophisticated missile in the world and can beat any missile defense the us develop. what do u think guys?
 
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   RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   4/15/2004 6:33:09 PM
Your confidence in a missile which is essentially identical in form and function to every other ballistic platform on the globe amazes me. The elongated fuel bay and bloated propulsion system must have somehow made it the be-all-end-all. Perhaps I should humor you, however. The Topol series of missiles can be considered the Soviet counterpart to the American Minuteman. They both were deployed along a relatively shared timeline throughout the Cold War. In its upgraded form, the Topol 27 is comparable to the American Minuteman III system, both in terms of range and payload. It's no easier nor more difficult to intercept than any other ballistic missile. Most all ballistic weapons systems shed layers of outer foil upon re-entry, which can confuse the heck out of ground tracking radar. And some ballistic missiles have shorter burn times during launch than others, minimizing the window for satellite detection. The Topol 27 is not particularly more adept at either of these tasks than its Western counterparts..
 
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boris the romanian    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   4/20/2004 3:08:14 AM
I was under the impresion the Topol M actually had specialised decoys (10) to assist in the penetration of ground defences.
 
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NomadSoul    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   6/19/2004 5:55:23 AM
air ballistic is the key word, the missile has a MRV (maneuverable re-entry vehicle) capable of altering trjactory (to evade interception) upon re-entry.
 
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NomadSoul    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   6/19/2004 5:57:27 AM
Topol-M is built to penetrate the missile defense shield.
 
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hybrid    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   6/19/2004 6:25:52 AM
whoopee...a MARV...only 15-17 years late too.
 
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NomadSoul    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   6/19/2004 6:26:43 AM
Topol-M is the most sophisticated ICBM as we know of, not the most sophisticated SLBM in the world, that title belongs to Trident II D5 SLBM
 
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hybrid    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   6/20/2004 7:49:35 AM
Just one slight problem in this...I know of only 36 Topol-M's in existence currently (they had 4 batchs produced according to globalsecurity.org each batch had 10, so 40 tops so far and 36 quite probably being the lower end in active service, and that was the number at the beginning of this year). Of the Topol series (SS-25) we get the higher 300+ missiles. All of the M variants however have single warheads and are currently silo based. The Topol nominal variants are also single warhead currently (approx 550 KT yield warhead). I know they were having trouble for a couple years with the mobile M variants, not sure if they were ever fixed. In terms of throw weight total for the entire missile force, Russia has (or at least had at the beginning of this year) only the SS-18s, 19s and 24s have MIRVed heads. Of these the 18s have the largest number of heads at 1160 for the total deployment (about 116 missiles currently) but as has been stated elsewhere are older tech and well past their designated lifetime for the actual missiles themselves. In otherwords in terms of threat capability the older missiles have a much bigger potential. In terms of sophistication, eh, like others have said..its essentially similar to the minuteman III in that if necessary it can be upgraded very quickly to say MIRV/MARV heads. Now..the question I'd ask is how fast can you convert standard Topols to the M variant?
 
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Galderio    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   10/13/2004 11:20:19 AM
1-How many Topols mobile launchers are already working? 2-What western missile are equiped with MARVs rigth now?
 
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vok    RE:Is the Topol M SS 27 the best intercontinental ballistic missile??   12/22/2004 1:46:25 PM
First of all, Topol-M is much heavier than Minuteman III. If the rus decides to carry MIRVs on Topol-M, it will easily beat Minutman III. U.S. never depolyed MARV warhead. probably never will. Please don't compare Lockhead's MARV proposal of the late 1970's with the actual warhead. Design on paper does not equate to something real.
 
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Lightning Rod    It just doesn't matter   12/22/2004 2:23:53 PM
Unless I have missed something, no one has even a moderately competent Anti-ballistic missile system. Even if one had a very very good one it really doesn’t matter except for defending on a very small scale or as a safeguard against a mistaken launch. Let’s assume someone had a system that was 90% efficient (they don’t, but let’s be generous.) Your enemy launches a small scale attack say 3 missiles with 30 warheads. Your system does an outstanding job and takes out 27 of the 30 warheads. That is absolutely excellent work! Except you just lost 3 cities and a few million people.
 
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