Moscow, 15 January: The Ukrainian designer of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), the Yuzhnoye design bureau, has sold abroad documentation for the small liquid-propellant ICBM Kopye, which was under development in 1985 for the eponymous ground-mobile missile system, a military-diplomatic source has told Interfax-AVN on Thursday [15 January]."Documentation for Kopye was sold to one of the countries of Southeast Asia," the agency's source noted.
"If the fact of the sale is confirmed, it is unlikely to be pleasant news for the US," the source added.
According to open sources, the Yuzhnoye design bureau was developing the ground-mobile missile system Kopye in 1985 as an alternative to the small solid-fuel missile system Kuryer, which had similar characteristics and was supposed to be placed in a transport-launch container that looked like a refrigerated vehicle.
The preliminary design of the ground-mobile missile system Kopye was done on the basis of the wheeled four-axle all-terrain all-wheel drive chassis MAZ-543.
The Kopye ICBM was designed as a two-stage, pre-packaged liquid propellant ampoule-type [missile]. Its fuel was supposed to consist of highly toxic components, which apparently was the main reason for the decision to scrap it and to use solid-fuel ICBMs for the ground-mobile missile system.
The Kopye ICBM is about 13m long and 1.15m in diameter, has a launch weight of about 11 tonnes and a payload of 200 kg. It carries a single thermonuclear warhead, the maximum range is intercontinental.
The main advantage of the Kopye ground-mobile missile system is the ability to remain on combat duty in field conditions for log periods, which ensured its invulnerability.
Interfax
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