Approximately the size of the U.S. Minuteman ICBM, the SS-25 carries a single-warhead atop a three stage system. The SS-25 is road mobile, making the missile inherently survivable and capable of reload/refire operations. It can fire from field deployment sites or through the sliding roof garage it occupies at its base. The SS-25 joined operational Soviet SRF regiments in 1985. A total area of approximately 190,000 square kilometers could be required to deploy a force consisting of 500 road-mobile SS-25 ICBMs. A much higher number of personnel for the maintenance of the mobile versions than for the fixed missiles, and the maintenance and operation of mobile ICBMs are significantly more expensive.

The three stage solid propellant RT-2PM Topol became the first Soviet mobile ICBM. It was deployed after almost two decades of unsuccessful attempts undertaken by different design bureaus. It emerged from the line of development of mobile missiles such as the SS-X-16 Temp-2S and the 'SS-20 Pioneer, and was deployed as a replacement for the widely deployed SS-11 SEGO.

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