The Strela light class launch vehicle is based on the RS-18 intercontinental ballistic missile (NATO designation: SS-19, Stiletto). The Strela LV offers high power performance, accuracy of orbital injection and in-flight reliability. It can lift off from silo launchers currently operational at the Baikonur and Svobodny Cosmodromes.

The principal design concept of the Strela LV has inherited all positive operating characteristics of the original RS-18 ICBM. The Mechanisms and Instruments Section of the RS-18 ICBM fitted up with the launch vehicle flight-control system is used as an upper section of the Strela ascent unit, thus making any modification of the ground control and targeting system unnecessary.

The ascent unit that contains the measuring equipment compartment with a payload adapter and mating stage can be protected by two different fairings: a standard RS-18 fairing (Ascent Unit 1 option) or a larger one optimized during RS-18 trial launches (Ascent Unit 2 option). All the stages of the Strela launch vehicle operate on high-boiling components of hypergolic propellant – unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine as fuel and nitrogen tetroxide as oxidizer. The Strela LV is stored in transport-launch canister and lifts off from silo launcher.