Waves of small, relatively cheap, Taifun flak rockets were to be launched en masse into Allied bomber formations.

Klaus Scheufelen [de], an officer at Peenemünde, had been working on the Wasserfall guided missile but had become dissatisfied with the project's complexity and proposed a cheap unguided rocket as an alternative.

[1] A solid propellant version of the Taifun, called the Wirbelsturm (German for "Tornado"), was designed in parallel with the liquid fueled models but was not put into production.

[3] Post war, the unbuilt solid propellant version was used as the basis of design for the Soviet R-103 and R-110 unguided surface-to-air rockets.

A timed self destruct fuze was fitted to the rear of the Taifun to destroy the rocket if it failed to hit a target.