Early Soviet naval missile development drew on land-based anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic projects. The wartime R-101 barrage rocket was fired during the siege of Leningrad and reportedly brought down two German aircraft. Postwar projects such as the R-102 drew on German work, while the competing R-117 and R-112 explored new paths. Although the R-112 was cancelled without flying, its propulsion, guidance, and aerodynamic work helped open the way to a later generation of surface-to-air missiles. The sequence places the navalized systems of the 1980s in a lineage of experiments, cancellations, and reused technical knowledge.
Chapter · 37:50-41:14
Early Soviet missile development and naval adaptation
Early Soviet anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic projects fed land-based missile technology into the systems later associated with Soviet sea power.