[2]: 241 The missile used a MAZ-547A/MAZ-7916 transporter erector launcher (TEL) produced in the Belarusian SSR by the Minsk Automobile Plant.

Designated by NATO as SS-20 Mod3, this variant had the same propulsion system as earlier versions, but due to upgrading of a command structure and instrumentation-service unit it was possible to improve accuracy (CEP) from 550 to 450 meters, to increase maximum range by 10%, and to increase the area covered by the warheads.

[4] It was intended to replace, or augment, the R-12 Dvina (SS-4 Sandal) and R-14 Chusovaya (SS-5 Skean) missiles deployed from 1958 and 1961 respectively in the USSR and Warsaw Pact states.

Flight testing began in 1974 and deployment commenced on 11 March 1976, with the first supplied units becoming operational in August of that year.

There were several theories as to why the Soviet Union developed the RSD-10: During the 1960s, Soviet missile procurement was dominated by the ideas of Defence Minister, Marshal Andrei Grechko who was opposed to the idea of nuclear weapons as a weapon of last resort, and planned, if World War III commenced, to begin that conflict with an immediate nuclear strike on the NATO nations.

[2]: 245–247  More importantly, the increasing influence of Marshal Dmitriy Ustinov heralded a shift in Soviet thinking about nuclear weapons.

[2]: 251–252  The British historian James Cant wrote that it was the triumph of the Soviet version of the military-industrial complex over the military as regarding weapons procurement that was the most important reason for the Pioneer.

North Korea has acquired an unknown number of demilitarized RSD-10 transporter erector launchers from Russia or from Belarus for use with the BM25 Musudan missile.