pm1823 - 12/1/2008 2:58 PM "Proton" intended for war?! Get away with it! It's pure space transport LV, not an ICBM in any kind. And the Railroad was, and still is, main limiting factor for a stage length and diameter(4100mm) in Russian' rocket industry. To fit in the transport limit is not a wartime condition. Limits on transportation is not only military problem, any civil engineering project has one.
You would be surprised to learn that the initial authorization for development of Proton was as an ICBM, designed to carry the largest Soviet nukes. The 2 stage Proton was to be deployed underground, in an enormous silo, in which 6 Protons at a time would stand by on a carousel. If need be, a single Proton would be launched from the single silo, and the next Proton would then be rotated on the carousel into the silo. This would have been the ultimate "six shooter".
This is the reason why the first three launches of Proton had an undersized second stage and no third stage, as the ICBM variant did not require orbital velocity.
pm1823 - 17/1/2008 2:17 PM
You mix in the one meal a very early conception of using Universal Rocket (UR)-500 as ICBM and reality. In such case, we can say that Space Shuttle or any new SSTO concept designed as orbital nuclear bomber, because there’s such a possible using for USAF.
edkyle99 - 17/1/2008 1:22 PM One important difference. The early UR-500 (eventual Proton base) design was shaped by the ICBM requirements, however impractical they might have been. Space Shuttle was not designed with any offensive military use in mind. - Ed Kyle
More to the point is that the Proton ICBM variant was actually flown. Many proposals have come and gone, and rarely do they reach the point of cutting metal. In this case, the thing successfully flew, leaving little doubt that the origin of Proton was as an ICBM.
Obviously, at some point, the ICBM plan was dropped, but far enough along that flight hardware produced.
publiusr - 7/3/2008 2:17 PM
Not so different from the R-7. Korolov could have waited until smaller warheads came along, and built a smaller ICBM (as was the case with Atlas) but Korolov exploited the military's desire for an 'instant' ICBM, built a space booster, and sold it as an ICBM. It sounds like Chelomei did the same thing. Outfit a big ICBM, while sitting on plans for space use later.