OTR-23 Oka

It also had a fast reaction time, being able to fire in approximately five minutes, and was nearly impossible to intercept, thereby allowing it to penetrate defenses.

• Name — OTR-23 Oka • Type — Short-range ballistic missile • Origin — Soviet Union • Is Missile — yes • Service — 1980−1989 (USSR) • Used By — See operators • Designer — Sergey Nepobedimy • Design Date — 1972 • Manufacturer — Votkinsk Machine Building Plant • Number — 450 • Variants — See variants • Mass — 4630 kg • Length — 7.32 m • Diameter — 0.97 m • Filling — High explosive fragmentation, cluster, chemical, nuclear • Filling Weight — 716-772 kg • Vehicle Range — 500 km • Guidance — Inertial with active radar homing • Propellant — Single-stage solid-fuel rocket • Accuracy — 30 m CEP • Launch Platform — 9P71 TEL

During the mid-1960s the Soviets began developing a replacement for the R-17 Elbrus (NATO reporting name: SS-1C Scud B), which had some serious drawbacks including slow launching time, dangerous fuel, and poor accuracy. After starting with some design concepts in 1965−1971, development of the 9M714 missile started in 1972 at the Machine Industry Design Bureau (KBM) in Kolomna led by Sergey Nepobedimy, the same design bureau that developed the OTR-21 Tochka. The 9M714, designed as an extended range version of the Tochka, used solid fuel which could be quickly loaded and fired with a smaller crew and less support vehicles. The Oka could be readied for launch in less than 30 minutes in comparison to the Scud-B, which takes about 90 minutes to be prepared for launch.

• 9K714 Oka − Original version with a range of over 500 km. • Oka-U − In 1984, the Soviets worked on a reconnaissance and strike system similar to the American Assault Breaker. It was intended to include both a weapon system and integrated airborne intelligence gathering system based on the Myasishchev M-55 (NATO reporting name: Mystic-B) aircraft. The system was ready for trials in 1989, but the program was abandoned with the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991. • Sphera − A proposed satellite launch vehicle conversion of the Oka, it had a launch mass of 3300 kg and could place a 415 kg payload into low Earth orbit at a 275 km altitude.

The operational life of the Oka was limited and controversial. The Soviet military asserted that the Oka had a maximum range of 400 km (250 miles). American experts, however, estimated it had a greater range. In 1987, Mikhail Gorbachev proposed to George Shultz that he would unilaterally remove all Okas, if it would prevent the United States from building up its own short-range nuclear forces in Europe, despite the fact that the Soviet military was in favor of the Oka. Shultz however lacked the authority to act on the suggestion. Gorbachev included the Oka in the class of systems to be discontinued as part of the INF Treaty as a gesture of goodwill, even though Soviet assertions of its maximum range did not put it outside the specifications of the treaty. There was diplomatic controversy over this weapon in April 1990, when the Soviets informed the US of their covert transfer of at least 120 missiles to the Warsaw Pact states of Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, and East Germany during the time of negotiation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Evidence indicates that the missiles were transferred with conventional warheads only, although equipment to load Soviet nuclear warheads was apparently retained.

• Illustration — The 9M714 missile, erected on its TEL • The 9M714B missile armed with the AA-60 (9N63) nuclear warhead and possessing a maximum range of 500 km • The 9M714F missile armed with a FRAG-HE warhead weighing 450 kg and possessing a maximum range of 450 km • The 9M714K missile armed with a submunitions warhead 9N74K weighing 715 kg and possessing a maximum range of 300 km In addition to these warheads, the OTR-23 Oka was also reported to be able to deliver chemical munitions.

• Illustration — Map with former OTR-23 operators in red

•: Phased out in 2002 •: Phased out in the 1990s •: Passed on to successor states •: Phased out in the 1990s, shortly before the reunification with West-Germany •: Phased out in 2000 •: Phased out as directed by the INF Treaty