Russia's SS-18 Satan missile to stay in service for up to 8 years

MOSCOW, July 30 (RIA Novosti) - The RS-20 Voyevoda (SS-18 Satan) intercontinental ballistic missile, adopted exactly 20 years ago, will remain in service until 2014-16, Russia's Strategic Missile Forces said on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the forces said the missile remains the most powerful ICBM in the world.

As of 1992, 88 SS-18 missile launchers had been deployed in Russia, most of them at the Dombarovsky missile base in the Orenburg Region, in the southern Urals.

The missile is armed with a MIRV (multiple independently targetable re-entry vehicle) warhead with a yield of 550 to 750 kilotons.

According to publicly available sources, the missile has a maximum range of 11,000 km (6,800 miles) with a launch mass of over 210 tons and a payload of 8.8 tons.