[5] Directly beneath the warhead, the instrumentation necessary for guidance of the missile was housed inside of a hemispherical compartment formed by the upper bulkhead of the oxidiser tank.

Another novelty was factory fueling with the subsequent "ampulization" of the tanks by welding filling and drain valves.

The engine was ignited using a squib[4]: 87  and burned a hypergolic propellant combination, dinitrogen tetroxide and unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine, which was delivered into the combustion chamber via turbopumps.

As a result of this design practice, most of the engine could not be tested, repaired or maintained as soon as it was permanently welded inside the missile.

To reduce the effect of water hammer when igniting the rocket engine, the nozzles were housed inside of a watertight air-filled adapter connecting the bottom of the missile with its container.

The missile was a two-stage development of the single-stage R-27, the second stage containing the warhead as well as propulsion and terminal guidance.

[6] Although the R-27K could fit in the launch tubes of the Project 667A (NATO Yankee class), the subs lacked the necessary equipment to target and fire the missile.

The Zyb sounding rocket was created on the basis of the R-27 specifically for performing experiments in a Microgravity environment.

[7] In 1992, the Makeyev Rocket Design Bureau signed a contract with North Korea regarding the creation of a R-27 derived launch vehicle.

As a result of this, the very similar North Korean Hwasong-10 "Musudan" IRBM was derived from the R-27,[8] the only major change from the original being a slightly extended fuselage.