Development of the R-13 was authorised by the Soviet Supreme Council on 25 July 1955 for use on the
Project 629 and
Project 658 submarines. The design work was started by
OKB-1 under
Sergei Korolev before being transferred to CB Miasskoe engineering /
Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau (chief designer -
Viktor Makeyev). Final technical specifications was approved by 11 January 1956. Serial production was undertaken at
Zlatoust Machine-Building Plant in 1959. The R-13 was a single-stage
liquid-fuel rocket and entered service in 1961. This missile was somewhat similar in design to the
R-11FM missile, which caused some confusion in Western
intelligence services during the
Cold War. The missiles were phased out from 1965 to 1975. A set of four
stabilizers and verniers were used to keep the missile on-course during initial flight. During initial testing before the missiles were deployed, 26 of 32 missiles (81%) were successfully launched. While the systems were deployed from 1961 to 1975, 225 of 311 launches (72%) were successful. ==Operators==