Scud Missile

The Scud is a family of Soviet tactical ballistic missiles, beginning with the R-11, designed by engineer Viktor Makeev under Sergei Korolev's direction and entering service in 1957, and continuing with the more widely used R-17, known as the Scud-B, which entered service in 1964. Powered by a single liquid-fuel engine designed by A. M. Isaev that was far simpler than the multi-chamber engine of the earlier German V-2, the Scud gave the Soviet army a mobile strike system capable of hitting targets across Europe from forward positions. Iraq fired a total of 88 Scuds during the 1991 Gulf War, 46 into Saudi Arabia and 42 into Israel, striking civilian and military targets and making the missile a familiar name to Western audiences for the first time.