History of Soviet Air to Air Missiles

June 04, 2025

History of Soviet Air to Air Missiles

History of Soviet Air to Air Missiles

So first Generations.

Radar

Gen 1 = radar beam riding

Gen 2 = SARH with a continuous wave seeker

Gen 3 = SARH with data link and INS with Inverse Monopulse Seeker and solid state electronics.

Gen 4 = adds full active radar homing with enhanced ECCM

Gen 5 = AESA Seeker

Infrared

Gen 1 = conical scanning seeker with rear aspect tracking

Gen 2 = cooled/twin channel seekers with limited all aspect lock

Gen 3 = Rossett Scanning Seeker with full all aspect tracking and IRCCM

Gen 4 = three channel multispectral or focal plane array optical seekers.

Radar Missiles

The first soviet basic 1st Generation Air to Air Missile (beam riding) was the RS-1U developed in 1952 for the MiG-17PF with it being completed in 1953 and produced in 1955, this was followed by RS-2U, K-6 and izdeliye 275 in 1956.

The first soviet 2nd Generation radar missile was the Izdeliye 277 developed in mid 50s and utilised on the La-250 in 1957-58 as part of the upgraded K-15 weapons system then the K-9 missile for T-49, P-1 and Ye-150 Prototypes starting from 1958, this was followed with the R-8R and R-4R developed in 1955-1956 and utilised in 1958 for use on I-75 then in 1959 for use on Ye-150, all of these were used on protoypes but R-8R and R-4R missiles would be used on for use on Su-11, Su-15, Tu-28 and Yak-28 production aircraft from 1960 onwards.

This was followed by the R-3R in 1964 for the MiG-21S which entered service in 1968.

The Soviets first 3rd Generation missile was the R-40R developed in 1965 and produced in 1967 for the MiG-25P, it utilised the PARG-12 inverse monopulse seeker and at this point the R-40 was probably the most advanced on earth, utilising solid state electronics with an inverse monopulse seeker and this was followed on with the R-23R developed in 1967 and utilised in 1970 for the MiG-23 which used the RGS-23 inverse monopulse seeker, not long after in 1971 the R-98MR was developed which utilised the PARG-16 inverse monopulse seeker for the Su-15TM with it entering service in 1973.

This was followed by the improved R-40RD and R-24R in late 70s along with R-4MR

Then in 1978 this was followed with the R-33 with the MFBU-410 and R-27R with the 9B-1101T both inverse monopulse seekers for the MiG-31, MiG-29 and Su-27 and were utilised throughout the 80s.

The Soviets first 4th Generation missile was the 9B-1348 ARH seeker for R-77 that was tested in 1984 followed by the R-37 for the MiG-31M developed in early 80s and tested in 1985 that used the 9B-1388 active radar homing seeker.

There was also the R-27EA which used a 9B-1103K active radar seeker that was developed in the early 80s but lost to the R-77.

R-37 with 9B-1388

R-77 with 9B-1348

R-27EA with 9B-1103K

This was followed by the R-172 in 2003 that was developed for the MiG 1.44 5th Generation prototype and Su-37 that used the 9B-1103M active radar seeker.

This was followed by the R-77-1 and R-37M in 2010s that utilise the 9B-1248 and 9B-1103M-350 active seekers for use on all modern Russian aircraft.

R-77-1 with 9B-1248

R-37M with 9B-1103M-350

In 2018 Russia developed the R-37M-810 and R-77M 5th gen missiles which use 9B-1103-350M1 and 9B-1103M2 AESA seekers for the MiG-35, Su-35S, Su-30SM2, Su-57 and Su-75.

Infrared Homing

The first Soviet infrared homing missiles were the R-8T and R-4T developed in 1957-1958 and utilised in 1960 for use on Ye-150 and T-43 Prototypes, this would be followed with Su-11, Su-15, Tu-28 and Yak-28 production aircraft starting from 1960. The Soviets then made the R-3T in 1960 for the MiG-21PF and MiG-19S which was a reverse engineered AIM-9B from one captured in 1958, this leaped the USSR ATA missile and gave them a fast maneuverable missile, similar to how USA only relied on AIM-4s before creating the sidewinder.

The soviets first 2nd Generation Missile was the R-98T in 1965-1967 for Su-15T with TGS-14T seeker then in 1967-1968 with the R-3TM and R-40T for MiG-21S and MiG-25P with a TGS-13TM and TGS-40 seeker, then not long after the R-23T with TGS-23 for MiG-23 and then finally the R-60 in 1970 with OGS-60TI Komar two channel seeker for nearly all soviet fighter aircraft. The R-60 set the standard for such missiles with incredible manuvarabilities and limited all aspect tracking

This was followed throughout the 70s with the R-14, R-98MT, R-40TD, R-24T and lastly R-60M with OGS-75 Komar-M.

The soviets first 3rd generation missile was the R-27T in 1979 which utilised a Geofizika-36T cooled rossett scanning seeker for use on MiG-29 and Su-27, in 1981 this was followed with the R-40TD1 for MiG-31 which used the cooled rossett scan Geofizika-35T1 seeker and the R-73 which used the Mayak-80 seeker, both are cooled rossett scan seekers for use with the MiG-31, MiG-29 and Su-27 then the 9M39V in the mid 80s for use on Ka-50 and Mi-28. Soviets also trialled the R-33T with the TGS-33 IR cooled rossett scan seeker but was not adopted.

Improved 3rd generation models were utilised throughout the 90s and 2000s with the R-73M and R-27ET in 1990 with the Geofizika-36TE and Mayak-80M, R-74 in late 90s with Mayak-80BM and then the R-74M in 2012 which entered service in 2016 which uses the new dual band Impuls-90 cooled seeker.

Russia's first 4th generation missile was the Verba-V in 2016 for use on Mi-28NM and Ka-52M which utilised a 9M336V three channel multispectral optical seeker, Followed by the R-74M2 in 2019 which utilised a Karfagen-760 which was another three channel multispectral optical seeker but with added data link and INS.