R-1

8A11 SS-1 Scunner (NATO)

Mission Profile

R-1 (8A11) was the Soviet Union's first domestically produced ballistic missile, a close copy of the German A-4 (V-2) built to transfer the technology captured at the end of World War II into Soviet hands. Standing 14.6 meters tall with a liftoff mass of 13,400 kg and generating 270 kN of thrust, it had a range of approximately 270 kilometers and entered service in 1950. Developed under Sergei Korolev and other German-trained Soviet engineers at NII-88, the R-1 program was less about the missile itself than about forcing Soviet engineers to master the A-4's technology through production. This foundational experience directly enabled the subsequent development of progressively more powerful Soviet rockets, culminating in the R-7 that launched Sputnik.