Vympel NPO

Vympel NPO is a Russian research and production company based near Moscow, mostly known for their air-to-air missiles. Other projects include SAM and ABM defenses. It was started in the Soviet era as an OKB (experimental design bureau).

OKB-134 Toropov

Vympel started out after World War II as OKB-134, with Ivan I. Toropov leading the team. The first product they designed was the K-7 missile.^[1] Their first missile built in serial production was the K-13 (R-13) in 1958. Toropov moved to Tushino Aviation Facility in 1961 and was replaced by Andrey Lyapin.^[2] Somewhere between 1966 and 1968 the OKB got renamed to Vympel. In 1977 Matus Bisnovat of OKB-4 Molniya died, and all missile related work was passed to Vympel. G. Khokhlov got to lead the team from until 1981, when Genadiy A. Sokolovski succeeded him.^[3]

GosMKB Vympel

In 1992 the GosMKB Vympel got started on the basis of the OKB^[4] and in 1994 Sokolovski became the director of development at the company.

In May 2004 the Tactical Missiles Corporation was formed and Vympel became a part of it, as the design and development facility.

Notable projects

Air-to-air missiles

• K-13/R-13 (AA-2 "Atoll")
• R-4 (AA-5 "Ash")
• R-23/R-24 (AA-7 "Apex")
• R-27 (AA-10 "Alamo")
• R-33 (AA-9 "Amos")
• R-37 (AA-13 "Arrow")
• R-40 (AA-6 'Acrid')
• R-60 (AA-8 "Aphid")
• R-73 (AA-11 "Archer")
• R-77 (AA-12 "Adder")

Air-to-surface missiles

• Kh-29 (AS-14 "Kegde")

• Terra-3 laser

Surface-to-air missiles

• 3M9 SA missile (SA-6 "Gainful") for Kub missile system.

References

1. ^ Aviation.ru - GosMKB «Vympel»
2. ^ Federation of American Scientists - AA-1 ALKALI
3. ^ eDefense blog - 25 years of service of Russian Kh-29 missile
4. ^ Palms & Company Document - Russia's 200 largest industries available for merger - acquisition