Russian: r-36 (ss-9), r-36m (ss-18)

The R-36, (Russian: R-36) is a family of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) and space launch vehicles designed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War in 1962. The original R-36 was produced by the Soviet industry under the design name 8K67 and was given the NATO reporting name SS-9 Scarp. The later version, the R-36M was produced under design name of 15A14 and 15A18 and was given the NATO reporting name SS-18 Satan. This missile was viewed by certain U.S. analysts as giving the Soviet Union first strike advantage over the U.S., particularly because of its very heavy throw weight and extremely large number of re-entry vehicles. Some versions of the R-36M were deployed with 10 warheads and up to 40 penetration aids and the missile's high throw-weight made it theoretically capable of carrying more warheads or penetration aids. Contemporary U.S. missiles, such as the Minuteman III, carried up to three warheads at most.

The R-36 (SS-9) is a two-stage rocket powered by a liquid bipropellant, with Unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as an oxidizer. It carries one of three types of re-entry vehicles (RVs) developed especially for this missile:

• The Modification 1 and Modification 2 carried single nuclear warheads of 18 and 25 megatons of TNT yield respectively.

• The Modification 4 carried three multiple independently targeted re-entry vehicles (MIRV).

An additional version, the Modification 3, was proposed (it was to be a Fractional Orbital Bombardment System (FOBS), a missile that travels through space in a low-earth orbit), but was not adopted due to the Outer Space Treaty.

The R-36P missile was developed to carry the Modification 4 warhead, while the R-36O (the letter O) was to be for the Modification 3 FOBS. R-36 and R-36P missiles were hot launched from their silos.

The R-36M (SS-18) is similar to the R-36 in design, but has the capacity to mount a payload of 10 warheads, each with a 550–750 kiloton yield, or a single warhead of up to 20 megaton. Throw-weight of the missile is 8,800 kg. This makes the Soviet R-36 the world's heaviest ICBM; for comparison, the heaviest US ICBM (the retired LGM-118 Peacekeeper that carried 10 warheads of 300 kiloton each) had less than a half of this at 4,000 kg. The R-36M has two stages. The first is a 460,000 kgf (4.5 MN) thrust motor with four combustion chambers and nozzles. The second stage is a single-chamber 77,000 kgf (755 kN) thrust motor.

At full deployment, before the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, 308 R-36M launch silos were operational. After the breakup of the USSR, 204 of these were located on the territory of the Russian Federation and 104 on the territory of newly independent Kazakhstan. Part of the missiles in Kazakhstan (54 of them) was under the 57th Rocket Division at Zhangiz-Tobe (Solnechnyy), Semipalatinsk Region. The other R-36 establishment in Kazakhstan was the 38th Rocket Division at Derzhavinsk, Turgay Region. In the next few years Russia reduced the number of R-36M launch silos to 154 to conform with the Start I Treaty. The missiles in Kazakhstan were all deactivated by 1995. The subsequent START II treaty was to eliminate all R-36M missiles but it did not enter into force and the missiles remained on duty.