Scud is a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War, and exported widely to other countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name SS-1 Scud which was attached to the missile by Western intelligence agencies. The Russian names for the missile are the R-11 (the first version), R-17 and R-300 Elbrus (later developments). The name Scud has been widely used to refer to these missiles and the wide variety of derivative variants developed in other countries based on the Soviet design.
Development
The first use of the term Scud was in the NATO name
SS-1b Scud-A, applied to the R-11 ballistic missile. The earlier
R-1 missile had carried the NATO name SS-1 Scunner, but was of a very different design, almost directly a copy of the
German V-2. The R-11 used technology gained from the V-2 as well, but was a new design, smaller and differently shaped than the V-2 and R-1 weapons. The R-11 was developed by the
Korolyev OKB and entered service in 1957. The most revolutionary innovation in the R-11 was the engine, designed by
A.M. Isaev. Far simpler than the V-2's multi-chamber design, and employing an anti-oscillation baffle to prevent
chugging, it was a forerunner to the larger engines used in Soviet launch vehicles.
Further developed variants were the R-300 Elbrus / SS-1c Scud-B in 1961 and the SS-1d Scud-C in 1965, both of which could carry either a conventional high-explosive, a 5- to 80-kiloton nuclear, or a chemical (thickened VX) warhead. The SS-1e Scud-D variant developed in the 1980s can deliver a terminally guided warhead capable of greater precision.
All models are long (except Scud-A, which is shorter) and in diameter. They are propelled by a single liquid-fuel rocket engine burning kerosene and corrosion Inhibited Red Fuming Nitric Acid (IRFNA) with UDMH, unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (Russian TG-02 like German Tonka 250) as liquid igniter (self ignition with IRFNA) in all models.
The missile reaches a maximum speed of mach 5.
Variants
Soviet Union
R-11
The first of the "Scud" series, designated R-11 (SS-1B Scud-A) originated in a 1951 requirement for a ballistic missile with similar performance to the German
V-2 rocket. The R-11 was developed by engineer
Victor Makeev, who was then working in the
OKB-1, headed by
Sergey Korolev. It first flew on April 18, 1953, was fitted with an Isayev engine using
kerosene and
nitric acid as propellant. On 13 December 1953, a production order was passed with
SKB-385 in
Zlatoust, a factory dedicated to producing long-range rockets. In June 1955, Makeev was appointed chief designer of the SKB-385 to oversee the program and, in July, the R-11 was formally accepted into military service. The definitive R-11M, designed to carry a nuclear warhead, was accepted officially into service on April 1, 1958. The launch system received the
GRAU designation 8K11.
The R-11M had a maximum range of 270 km, but when carrying a nuclear warhead, this was reduced to 150 km. Its purpose was strictly as a mobile nuclear strike vector, giving the Soviet Army the ability to hit European targets from forward areas, armed with a nuclear warhead with an estimated yield of 50 kilotons.
A naval variant, the R-11FM (SS-N-1 Scud-A) was first tested in February 1955, and was first launched from a converted Project 611 (Zulu class) submarine in September of the same year. While the initial design was done by Korolev's OKB-1, the programme was transferred to Makeev's SKB-385 in August 1955. It became operational in 1959 and was deployed onboard Project 611 and Project 629 (Golf Class) submarines. During its service, 77 launches were conducted, of which 59 were successful.
R-17
The successor to the R-11, the R-17 (SS-1C Scud-B), renamed R-300 in the 1970s, was the most prolific of the series, with a production run estimated at 7,000. It served in 32 countries and four countries besides the Soviet Union manufactured copied versions. The new
MAZ-543 vehicle was officially designated 9P117 ''Uragan''. The launch sequence could be conducted autonomously, but was usually directed from a separate command vehicle. The missile is raised to a vertical position by means of hydraulically-powered cranes, which usually takes four minutes, while the total sequence lasts about one hour.
====Scud-D====
The R-17 VTO (SS-1e Scud-D) project was an attempt to enhance the accuracy of the R-17. The Central Scientific Research Institute for Automation and Hydraulics (TsNIAAG) began work on the project in 1968, but the first test launch was conducted only in September 1979. Development continued through the 1980s until the system was accepted into initial service as the 9K720 Aerofon in 1989. However, by this time, more advanced weapons were in use, such as the OTR-21 Tochka(SS-21) and the R-400 Oka(SS-23), and the Scud-D was not acquired by the Soviet armed forces. Instead it was proposed for export as an upgrade for Scud-B users, in the 1990s.
Unlike previous Scud versions, the 9K720 had a warhead that separated from the missile's body, and was fitted with its own terminal guidance system. With a TV camera fitted in the nose, the system could compare the target area with data from an onboard computer library. In this way, it was thought to attain a Circular Error Probable (CEP) of 50 m, while retaining the 300 km range of the Scud-B. The first prototypes were completed in 1984, and designated Hwasong-5. They were exact replicas of the R-17Es obtained from Egypt. The first test flights occurred in April 1984, but the first version saw only limited production, and no operational deployment, as its purpose was only to validate the production process.
Production of the definitive version began at a slow rate in 1985. The type incorporated several minor improvements over the original Soviet design. The range was increased by 10 to 15 percent and it could carry High Explosive (HE) or cluster chemical warheads. Throughout the production cycle, until it was phased out in favour of the Hwasong-6 in 1989, the DPRK manufacturers are thought to have carried out small enhancements, in particular to the guidance system.
In 1985, Iran acquired 90 to 100 Hwasong-5 missiles from North Korea. A production line was also established in Iran, where the Hwasong-5 was produced as the Shahab-1.
Hwasong-6
Work on an extended range Scud began in 1988, and with only relatively minor modifications, a new type was produced from 1989, going by the name Hwasong-6 ("Scud Mod. C" or "Scud-C"). It was first test-flown in June 1990, and entered full-scale production the same year, or in 1991, until it was superseded by the Rodong-1. It features an improved guidance system, a range of 500 km, but saw its payload reduced to 770 kg, though the dimensions are identical to the original Scud. Due to difficulties in procuring
MAZ-543 TELs, the North Koreans had to produce a local copy. By 1999, North Korea was estimated to have produced 600 to 1,000 Hwasong-6 missiles, of which 25 served for testing, 300 to 500 were exported, and 300 to 600 are used by the
Korean People's Army.
The Hwasong-6 was exported to Iran where it is known as the Shahab-2, and to Syria, where it is manufactured under license with Chinese assistance. Also, according to SIPRI, 150 Scud-C were exported to Syria in 1991-96, 5 to Libya in 1999, 45 to Yemen in 2001-02.
Rodong-1
The Rodong (also NoDong, "Scud-D"), was the first North Korean missile to feature important modifications from the Scud design. Development began in 1988, and the first missile was launched in 1990, but it apparently exploded on its launch pad. A second test was carried out in May 1993 successfully.
The main characteristics of the Rodong are a range of 1000 km and a CEP estimated at 2,000-4,000 m, giving the North Koreans the ability to strike Japan. The missile is substantially larger than the Hwasong series, and its Isayev 9D21 engine was upgraded with help from Makeyev OKB. Some assistance came also from China and Ukraine while a new TEL was designed using an Italian Iveco truck chassis and an Austrian crane. The rapidity with which the Rodong was designed and exported after just two tests came as a surprise for many Western observers, and led to some speculation that it was in fact based on a cancelled Soviet project from the Cold War period, but this has not been proven.
Iran is known to have financed much of the Rodong program, and in return is allowed to produce the missile, as the Shahab-3. While the first prototypes may have been acquired as early as 1992, production began only in 2001, with assistance from Russia. The Rodong has also been exported to Egypt and Libya.
Operational use
The Scud missile (including derivatives) is one of the few ballistic missiles to be used in actual warfare, second only to the V-2 in terms of combat launches (the
SS-21,
MGM-140 ATACMS, and
9K720 Iskander being the only other ballistic missiles fired in action). The first recorded combat use of Scud missiles was during the
Yom Kippur War in 1973, when a small number were used by
Egypt against
Israel. Libya responded to
U.S. airstrikes in 1986 by firing two Scud missiles at a
U.S. Coast Guard navigation station on the nearby Italian island of
Lampedusa, which missed their target. Scud missiles were used in several regional conflicts that included use by Soviet and Afghan Communist forces in
Afghanistan, and
Iranians and
Iraqis against one another in the so-called "War of the cities" during the
Iran–Iraq War. Scuds were used by Iraq during the
Gulf War against Israel and coalition targets in Saudi Arabia.
More than a dozen Scuds were fired from Afghanistan at targets in Pakistan in 1988. There was also a small number of Scud missiles used in the 1994 civil war in Yemen, by Russian forces in Chechnya in 1996 and onwards, and some minor use in the 2011 Libyan civil war.
Iran–Iraq War
Iraq was the first to use ballistic missiles during the
Iran–Iraq War, firing limited numbers of
Frog-7 rockets at the towns of
Dezful and
Ahvaz. On 27 October 1982, Iraq launched its first Scud-Bs at Dezful killing 21 civilians and wounding 100. Scud strikes continued during the following years, intensifying sharply in 1985, with more than 100 missiles falling inside Iran.
Desperate to respond in kind, the Iranians searched for a source of ballistic weapons, finally meeting success in 1985, when they obtained a small number of Scud-Bs from Libya. These weapons were assigned to a special unit, the ''Khatam Al-Anbya'' force, attached to the ''Pasdaran''. On March 12, the first Iranian Scuds fell in Baghdad and Kirkuk. The strikes infuriated Saddam Hussein, but the Iraqi response was limited by the range of their Scuds, that could not reach Tehran. After a request for TR-1 Temp (SS-12 Scaleboard) missiles was refused by the Soviets, Iraq turned to developing its own long-range version of the Scud missile, that became known as the Al Hussein. In the meantime, both sides quickly ran out of missiles, and had to contact their international partners for resupply. In 1986, Iraq ordered 300 Scud-Bs from the USSR, while Iran turned to North Korea for missile deliveries, and for assistance in developing an indigenous missile industry.
In 1988, the fighting along the border had reached a stalemate, and both belligerents began employing terror tactics, in order to break the deadlock. Lasting from 29 February to 20 April, this conflict became known as the war of the cities, and saw an intensive use of Scud missiles. The first rounds were fired by Iraq, when seven Al-Husseins landed in Tehran on February 29. In all, Iraq fired 189 missiles, mostly of the Al-Hussein type, of which 135 landed in Tehran, 23 in Qom, 22 in Isfahan, four in Tabriz, three in Shiraz and two in Karaj. During this episode, Iraq's missiles killed 2,000 Iranians, injured 6,000, and caused a quarter of Tehran's population of ten million to flee the city. The Iranian response included launching 75 to 77 Hwasong-5s, a North Korean Scud variant, at targets in Iraq, mostly in Baghdad.
Iraq asserts that Iran has fired dozens of Scud missiles at MKO targets in Iraq in 1999 and 2001. According to MKO spokesmen, in the 2001 assault, Iran fired more missiles at Iraq than it did during the entire Iran-Iraq war.
Civil war in Afghanistan
The most intensive - and less well-known - use of Scud missiles occurred during the
civil war in Afghanistan between 1989 and 1992. As compensation for the withdrawal of Soviet troops in 1989, the USSR agreed to deliver sophisticated weapons to the
Democratic Republic of Afghanistan (DRA), among which were large quantities of Scud-Bs, and possibly some Scud-Cs as well. During the
mujahideen attack against
Jalalabad, between March and June 1989, three firing batteries manned by Soviet crews fired approximately 438 missiles in defense of the embattled garrison. Soon all the heavily contested areas of Afghanistan, such as the
Salang Pass and the city of
Kandahar, were under attack by Scud missiles.
Due to its imprecision, the Scud was used as an area bombing weapon, and its effect was psychological as well as physical: the missiles would explode without warning, as they travelled faster than the sound they produced in-flight. At the time, reports indicated that Scud attacks had devastating consequences on the morale of the Afghan rebels, who eventually learned that by applying guerilla tactics, and keeping their forces dispersed and hidden, they could minimize casualties from Scud attacks.
The Scud was also used as a punitive weapon, striking areas that were held by the resistance. In March 1991, shortly after the town of Khost was captured, it was hit by a Scud attack. In April 1991, the marketplace of Asadabad was hit by two Scuds, that killed 300 and wounded 500 inhabitants. Though the exact toll is unknown, these attacks resulted in heavy civilian casualties.
In all, between October 1988 and February 1992, with 1,700 to 2,000 Scud launches, Afghanistan saw the greatest concentration of ballistic weapons fired since World War II. After January 1992, the Soviet advisors were withdrawn, reducing the Afghan army's ability to use their ballistic missiles. On April 24, 1992, the mujahideen forces of Ahmad Shah Massoud captured the main Scud stockpile at Afshur. As the communist government collapsed, the few remaining Scuds and their TELs were divided among the rival factions fighting for power. However, the lack of trained personnel prevented a sustained use of such weapons, and, between April 1992 and 1996, only 44 Scuds were fired in Afghanistan. When the Taliban arrived in power in 1996, they captured a few of the remaining Scuds, but lack of maintenance had reduced the state of the missile force to such an extent that there were only five Scud firings, until 2001. Following the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan, the few surviving Scud launchers were destroyed in 2005.
Gulf War
Scud attacks
At the outbreak of the
Gulf War, Iraq had an effective, if limited, ballistic missile force. Besides the original Scud-B, several local variants had been developed. These included the Al-Hussein, developed during the Iran–Iraq War, the Al-Hijarah, a shortened Al-Hussein, and the Al-Abbas, an extended-range Scud fired from fixed launching sites, that was never used. The Soviet-built
MAZ-543 vehicle was the prime launcher, along with a few locally-designed TELs, the Al Nida and the Al Waleed.
Scuds were responsible for most of the coalition deaths outside of Iraq and Kuwait. 42 Scud missiles in total were fired into Israel. They killed one Israeli directly and one Saudi security guard. Twenty-eight members of the Pennsylvania National Guard were killed when one struck a United States Army barracks in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
Scud hunting
Despite the limited damage inflicted by Iraqi missiles, the coalition committed important air assets and
special forces units to eliminate the Scuds and their launchers, essentially to persuade Israel that it did not need to intervene in the conflict.
The US Air Force organized air patrols over areas where Scud launchers were suspected to operate, namely western Iraq near the Jordanian border, where the Scuds were fired at Israel, and southern Iraq, where they were aimed at Saudi Arabia. A-10 strike aircraft flew over these zones during the day, and F-15Es fitted with LANTIRN pods and synthetic aperture radars patrolled at night. However, the infrared and radar signatures of the Iraqi TELSs were almost impossible to distinguish from ordinary trucks and from the surrounding electromagnetic clutter. While patrolling, strike aircraft managed to sight their targets on 42 occasions, they were only able to acquire them long enough to release their ordnance three times. In addition, the Iraqi missile units dispersed their Scud TELs and hid them in culverts, wadis, or under highway bridges. They also practiced "shoot-and-scoot" tactics, withdrawing the launcher to a hidden location immediately after it had fired, while the launch sequence that usually took 90 minutes was reduced to half an hour. This enabled them to preserve their forces, despite optimistic claims by the coalition. A post-war Pentagon study concluded that relatively few launchers had been destroyed by coalition aircraft.
Ground based special forces from the United Kingdom were sent to scout for launchers behind enemy lines, in some cases attacking them directly with MILAN man-portable missiles. A patrol that used the callsign Bravo Two Zero, led by "Andy McNab" (a pseudonym), was captured by the Iraqis, all except Chris Ryan.
The mobility of Scud TELs allowed for a choice of firing position and increased the survivability of the weapon system to such an extent that, of the approximately 100 launchers claimed destroyed by coalition pilots and special forces in the Gulf War, not a single destruction could be confirmed afterwards. After the war, UNSCOM investigations showed that Iraq still had 12 MAZ-543 vehicles, as well as seven Al-Waleed and Al-Nidal launchers, and 62 complete Al-Hussein missiles.
1994 civil war in Yemen
During the
1994 civil war in Yemen, both
South Yemen separatists and government forces fired Scud missiles.
2011 civil war in Libya
In May 2011, early during the
Libyan civil war, it was rumored that Scud-B's had been fired by
Muammar Gaddafi's forces against
anti-Gaddafi forces. The first confirmed use happened several months later, when on 15 August 2011, as anti-Gaddafi forces encircled the Gaddafi-controlled capital of
Tripoli,
Libyan Army forces near Gaddafi's hometown of
Sirte fired a Scud missile toward anti-Gaddafi positions in
Cyrenaica, well over 100 kilometers away. The missile struck the desert near
Ajdabiya, causing no casualties. A second Scud-B also fired by Gaddafi forces in Sirte was reportedly shot down by a NATO warplane on 22 August 2011. On 23 August, opposition forces in
Misrata reported that four Scud-B missiles were fired against the city from Sirte, but had caused no damage, with all purportedly being shot down by an
Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System-equipped
US Navy cruiser over the
Gulf of Sidra.
Operators
The current and former operators of Scuds or Scud derivatives are:
;: (Scud-B, Scud-C?)
;: (Scud-B, Scud-C)
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;: (Scud-B)
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;
;: (Scud-B,
Hwasong-6)
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;: (Scud-B,
Al-Hussein, Al-Abbas)
;: (Scud-B, Hwasong-5, Shahab-1, Shahab-2, Rodong-1)
;: (Scud-B)
;: (Scud-B)
;: (Scud-B, Scud-C,
Hwasong 5,
Hwasong-6,
Rodong-1)
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;: Retired
;
;
;: (Scud-B)-retired
;: (Scud-B,
Hwasong-6)
;: ( Scud-B)
;: 25
Hwasong-5s purchased from North Korea in 1989. The UAE military were not satisfied with the quality of the missiles, and they were kept in storage.
;: (Scud-B)
;: c. 30 Scud-B missiles and four
TELs acquired in 1995, and converted into targets by
Lockheed Martin.
;: (Scud-B,
Hwasong-6?)
;: (Scud-B)
;: (Scud-B)-retired
See also
List of missiles
Al Hussein - An Iraqi upgraded Scud-B
Shahab-1 - An Iranian copy of the Scud-B
9K720 Iskander - Russian Scud replacement
Mark Philippoussis - Australian tennis player nicknamed 'the Scud'.
References
Further reading
External links
R-11 / SS-1B SCUD-A JS-3-mounted – Walk around photos
R-300 9K72 Elbrus, SS-1C, SCUD-B on the MAZ-543 wheeled chassis – Walk around photos
GlobalSecurity.org: R-11 / SS-1b SCUD
The Scud Missile Syndrome
Kapustin Yar
A Lucid Interval
1991 Short History & Description of the SCUD
Category:1953 in spaceflight
Category:Chemical weapon delivery systems
Category:Cold War missiles of the Soviet Union
Category:Gulf War guided missiles
Category:Rocket artillery
Category:Tactical ballistic missiles
Category:Weapons of Iraq
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