An intercontinental missile, the R-39 had a three-stage solid-fuel boost design with a liquid-fuel post-boost unit carrying up to ten multiple independently targetable reentry vehicle warheads.

Like other SLBMs the initial launch was powered by a gas generator in the bottom of the firing tube.

Development work began at NII Mashinostroyeniya in 1971 and the design gained official approval in 1973.

All the missiles were decommissioned by 2004 and all the Typhoon class submarines have been retired, except for one which is used as a test platform for the RSM-56 Bulava.

A successor design, R-39M Grom (Russian: Гром, Thunder)/RSM-52V/SS-N-28 for D-19UTTKh launch system, suffered a succession of testing failures and was cancelled.