Scud-B ballistic missile causes a stir at the September 2nd military parade: Over 34 tons, maximum range 300km

The State-level rehearsal of the military parade to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the August Revolution and National Day on September 2nd took place solemnly and magnificently at the historic Ba Dinh Square.

The rehearsal featured the appearance of modern weapons, appearing for the first time in the parade formation, leaving a special mark.

Scud-B missile, missile with maximum range of 300km, maximum weight of 5,860kg, maximum damage area of 4 - 6 hectares. Missile launcher capacity up to 525 horsepower.

Find out why the Scud-B has become one of the most widely used and controversial weapons in military history.

Weapons of deterrence have terrifying destructive power

The Scud-B's story begins in the ashes of Berlin in 1945, when Soviet engineers meticulously studied every fragment of a Nazi V-2 rocket.

But what made the Scud missile line different was not mechanical copying, but the ability to innovate and adapt to the unique Soviet military philosophy.

R-17 Elbrus, the designation of the missile of the 9K72 Elbrus operational-tactical ballistic missile system, was born in 1962.

Unlike its bulky and complex predecessor, the Scud-A, which had been launched five years earlier, the Scud-B was designed with a simple but effective philosophy: a weapon that could be mass produced, was easy to operate, and was terrifying enough to provide strategic deterrence.

In the world of military technology, where complexity is often seen as a sign of progress, the Scud-B proves that sometimes simplicity is the key to success. With a modest "body" of 11.25 meters long and weighing nearly 6 tons, the Scud-B is not as scary looking as other "monsters" of intercontinental missiles.

But beneath the ordinary exterior was a technical marvel of its time. The Isayev RD-21 liquid-fueled engine was a huge step forward. Although liquid-fueled missiles typically required fueling just before launch due to their corrosive nature, the ability to prepare and launch the Scud relatively quickly from a mobile launcher made it formidable.

The inertial guidance system with three gyroscopes, although not comparable in accuracy to modern GPS, is reliable enough to bring the warhead close to the target.

The Soviet Union's published CEP figure was around 450 metres (although Western estimates range as high as 900 metres). This may sound crude by today's standards, but when the warhead contained 1 tonne of explosives or a 70 kiloton nuclear warhead, such "relative" accuracy was enough to make any large military area a vulnerable target.

Through the fires of war

If the Scud-B had existed only in military parades on Red Square, it would probably have been a small footnote in the history of weapons. But fate brought it to the world's fiercest battlefields, where it proved not only its military effectiveness but also its profound psychological impact.

The Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) turned the Scud-B into a symbol of terror. The Scud missiles used by both countries not only caused material damage but also created fear of an unpredictable and unstoppable threat from above.

By 1991, during the Gulf War, the Scud-B once again demonstrated its psychological power. Although Iraq only launched a few dozen missiles, the Scud threat forced Israel to consider entering the war and forced the coalition to devote huge resources to "Scud hunting" in the desert.

The hunt for MAZ-543 mobile launchers became a top priority, demonstrating the difficulty of dealing with a simple but easily concealed weapon.

What is most remarkable about the Scud-B is not its early technical achievements, but its ability to survive and adapt through the ages. While hundreds of other weapons have become museum pieces, the Scud-B continues to appear on modern battlefields.

A powerful weapon in many armies

From Yemen to Libya, from Syria to other crises, variants of the Scud are still in use. This reflects not only the durability of the original design, but also a sobering reality: in many conflict settings, a “good enough” weapon can be worth more than a “perfect” one.

The Scud’s ability to be produced and improved has also inspired many nations to develop their own missile programs. From North Korea to Iran, from Pakistan to many other countries, Scud technology has become the basis for national missile ambitions. This has created a phenomenon of “technology spillover” that is both worrying and difficult to control.

The Scud-B represents an interesting paradox of modern weapons: a system with limited accuracy can have far-reaching strategic impact. Unlike meter-accurate “superweapons,” the Scud-B succeeds by creating uncertainty and crisis.

When a Scud is launched, no one knows exactly where it will land within a hundred yards. This uncertainty creates a unique psychological power – putting an entire area on alert rather than just a specific target. It is a profound lesson in the relationship between technical precision and psychological effectiveness in war.

More than 60 years after its creation, the Scud-B continues to raise fundamental questions about the nature of military power and international security. Can a weapon designed during the Cold War still make sense in an age of cyberwarfare and artificial intelligence?

The answer seems to be yes. In an increasingly complex world of sophisticated defense systems, the Scud-B still represents a real threat because of its simplicity and mobility. Detecting and destroying a mobile Scud launcher remains a major challenge even for the most modern militaries.

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