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| General
information |
| The
Scud SS-1 medium range ballistic missiles are battlefield
support weapons designed to strike at targets such
as marshalling areas, major storage dumps and airfields
behind enemy lines. Warheads can be nuclear, chemical
(persistent) or conventional HE. The original Scud-A
version was thought to combine radio command of
propulsion cut-off and gyro-stabilized guidance
and to have not trajectory control after motor cut-off.
Missile programs of Pakistan, North Korea, and Iran
have been reported to use the Russian base system
Scud technology to produce battlefield missiles
capable of reaching up to 1,500 km in range. Add
this range with the potent ability to deliver a
payload of explosive, chemical, biological or nuclear
warheads.
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| Variants
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SCUD-A
SS-1b: also known
as SS-1b. The SCUD-B replaced the JS-3-mounted SCUD-A,
which had been in service since the mid-1950s.
SCUD-B SS-1c: The longer range
SCUD B, also known as SS-1c, can be distinguished
by the one meter greater length of the missile and
the presence of two air bottles on the side of the
superstructure in place of the single bottle used
for the "SCUD A" missile.
SCUD-C SS-1d: It had a longer range,
though lower accuracy, than the SCUD B, and was
deployed in smaller numbers. As of the late 1990s
some remained in service in Russian ground forces.
SCUD-D SS-1e: featured an improved
guidance system, possibly incorporating active radar
terminal homing, and a wider choice of warheads
than its predecessors. This missile has a range
of about 700 km.
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 Back
to top |
| Launcher
unit |
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The `Scud B' missile is carried on an eight
wheeled MAZ 543 P TEL vehicle (9P117M),
the missile is raised to the vertical position
at the back of the TEL before launch. The
MAZ 543 vehicle has a D-12 diesel engine
rated at 525 hp, with four driven axles,
and a separate 10 kW electric generator
for the missile operations. Two hydraulic
pumps power the cradle that raises the missile
to the vertical, which takes about 4 minutes.
The Scud vehicle has an unrefuelled range
of 650 km on hard roads and a maximum road
speed of 55 km/h.
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| Missile |
The
missile's improved fuel mixture consisted
of Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine (UDMH)
and Inhibited Red Furning Nitric Acid. The
missile could also be fitted with an assortment
of warhead including chemical, nuclear or
conventional munitions. The warhead bay
of the `Scud B' is 2.87 m long forming the
nose section of the missile, and weighs
985 kg. It is believed that the first Russian
design for `Scud B' was for a nuclear warhead
with a yield of 50 kT, but this was later
replaced with a selectable yield warhead
covering from 5 to 70 kT. A diagram of a
chemical warhead for the `Scud B' shows
a nose-mounted fuze with a high-explosive
bursting charge to open the warhead and
allow the resulting air flow to disperse
the 555 kg of viscous VX chemical agent
into a dense aerosol cloud. Russian documents
suggest that a number of different conventional
high explosive warheads were developed,
including blast/fragmentation, earth penetration,
fuel-air explosive and submunitions. The
HE blast fragmentation warhead contains
545 kg of HE. For the submunitions there
were again several options, including: fragmentation;
armour-piercing; runway penetrators; smoke;
mines or incendiary. The submunitions warheads
would all have been initiated by proximity
fuzes, to create an airburst to deploy the
submunitions over a wide area. It is believed
that 40 runway penetrator submunitions were
carried, each penetrator weighing 12 kg
and with 3 kg of HE Fragmentation submunitions
are believed to have numbered about 100
per warhead, each weighing 5 kg and containing
1.2 kg of HE, with a damage radius between
160 and 250 m.
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| Guidance
system |
Guidance
is by a rudimentary inertial system using
three gyroscopes, which give control signals
to four graphite vanes in the motor exhaust
to adjust the flight path of the missile
during the climb following launch. The control
vanes are only operative for the period
of motor burn, the first 60 seconds or so
of flight.
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| Combat
use |
| The
Scud has built-in test equipment, can aim
the missile, and can fire autonomously if
required. However, the target selection
and firing is usually carried out from a
separate command and control vehicle. A
typical `Scud B' launch sequence takes about
1 hour. After launch, the TEL moves to a
new position to avoid a counterattack, and
is reloaded from a towed resupply trailer.
The TEL can carry three crew, but it is
believed that five men are required in the
launcher crew.
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| Specifications |
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Type
of missile |
medium
range ballistic missile
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Country
users |
| Adghanistan,
Armenia, Azerbaijan, RDC, Iraq, Iran,
Kazakhstan, Libya, North Korea, South
Yemen, Syria, Oman, United Arab Emirates,
Vietnam, Yemen. |
Launcher |
mobile
truck transporter - erector - launcher
a
a
a
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Warhead |
| nuclear,
chemical, conventional HE, submunitions |
Crew |
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5
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Vehicle
weight |
37,400 kg
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Effective
range |
Scud-a:
180 km
Scud-b: 300 km
Scud-c: 550 km
Scud-d: 300 km
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Accuracy |
Scud-a:
3,000 m
Scud-b: 450 m
Scud-c: 700 m
Scud-d: 50 m
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Guidance |
Inertial
system |
Dimensions
vehicle |
Length, 13.36 m; Width, 3,02 m; Height,
2,65 m
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