RS-82 (rocket family)

RS-82 and RS-132 (Russian: Реактивный Снаряд, Reaktivny Snaryad; rocket-powered projectile) were unguided rockets used by Soviet military during World War II.

Design work on RS-82 and RS-132 rockets began in the late 1920s, by the Gas Dynamics Laboratory (GDL)[1] led by Georgy Langemak,[2] and including Nikolai Tikhomirov, Vladimir Artemiev, Boris Petropavlovsky, Yuriy Pobedonostsev, and others.

The first test-firing of a solid fuel rocket was carried out in March 1928, which flew for about 1,300 meters[3] and in 1932 in-air test firings of RS-82 missiles from an Tupolev I-4 aircraft armed with six launchers successfully took place.

[1] The earliest known use by the Soviet Air Force of aircraft-launched unguided anti-aircraft rockets in combat against heavier-than-air aircraft took place in August 1939, during the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.

[7] In the same year, as part of the attempted annexation of Finland, in the Winter War, six RS-132 rockets were fired, from Tupolev SB bombers, against Finnish ground targets.