GarryB Sat May 14, 2022 12:12 pm
only problem with having lots of recyclable ICBMs it makes your "domestic" small rocket developers payback on any project impossible
so to me these lightweight launchers are mostly a waste of capital in Russia
They will be ICBMs first and foremost so when they are made they wont be ready or used for satellite launches... the main user might be the Russian military to launch satellites.
A custom designed lightweight launcher should be cheaper than these missiles which will likely be liquid propellent rockets using storable liquid propellent.
They only become efficient because when they are surplus to requirements as ICBMs or even IRBMs that they are essentially free.
In fact that could be the thing too... design them to be full power ICBMs with three stages, or with super heavy payloads as IRBMs for all those hostile new targets in Europe, or just make them with two stages and just normal IRBMs for medium range targets to trash... the thing is that with two stages you have one high energy stage to get airborne and the whole weapon moving and out of the atmosphere and then the second stage takes it 4-5 thousand kms to its target in Europe or Japan or Alaska... but it would be easy to fit two of those first stages to end up with three stages... two energetic fast burning "first" stages and then a third stage to get it around the world to the US of A.... such flexibility in design would be as useful for an IRBM/ICBM as it would for a satellite launcher.. the IRBM would get most payloads to orbit but heavier payloads can add an extra stage or for higher orbits the extra stage could be used.
You can then vary your number of ICBMs and IRBMs based on the number of first stages you make... and when IRBMs retire making some extra first stages would allow IRBMs to launch high orbit payloads or heavy payloads too.
They will have rockets for lighter payloads too, which will use more efficient cryogenic fuels.
I do think though that flyback Krylo-SV rocket/UAV mutation is worth pursuing - if only to create interesting work for your people
who is funding it ? .... you can bet it is the military
Well if the first stage is reusable for space launches (would be redundant for ICBMs and IRBMs) then you could make a dozen or so and use them with hundreds or thousands of IRBMs to make them equivalent to ICBMs in terms of orbit heights and payload weights... if you could carry them around on the back of a truck it would offer the ability to rapidly replace lost satellites if needed, which would be a useful military capability.
Some conflicts will start without warning so being able to drive a truck to a specific location and launch a temporary satellite that might only last a few months to a year would be a valuable capability... not to mention the ability to replace lost satellites in a conflict too.
Conversely the ability to launch things into orbit like that would also be useful for shooting down or attacking enemy satellites too.