The Kaliningrad K-5 (

NATO reporting name NATO reporting names are code names for military equipment from Russia, China, and historically, the Eastern Bloc (Soviet Union and other nations of the Warsaw Pact). They provide unambiguous and easily understood English words in a uniform man ...

AA-1 ''Alkali''), also known as RS-1U or product ShM, was an early

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

air-to-air missile The newest and the oldest member of Rafael's Python family of AAM for comparisons, Python-5 (displayed lower-front) and Shafrir-1 (upper-back) An air-to-air missile (AAM) is a missile fired from an aircraft for the purpose of destroying a ...

History

The development of the K-5 began in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

. The first test firings were in

1953 Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugosl ...

. It was tested (but not operationally carried) by the Yakovlev Yak-25. The weapon entered service as the Grushin/Tomashevich (russian: Грушин/Томашевич) RS-2U (also known as the R-5MS or K-5MS) in

1957 1957 ( MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar, the 1957th year of the Common Era (CE) and ''Anno Domini'' (AD) designations, the 957th year of the 2nd millennium, the 57th year of the 20th century, and the 8th year ...

. The initial version was matched to the RP-2U (Izumrud-2) radar used on the MiG-17PFU,

MiG-19 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-19 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-19; NATO reporting name: Farmer) is a Soviet second generation, single-seat, twinjet fighter aircraft, the world's first mass-produced supersonic aircraft. It was the ...

PM. An improved variant, K-5M or RS-2US in PVO service, entered production in

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

, matched to the RP-9/RP-9U (Sapfir) radar of the Sukhoi Su-9. The

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

developed a copy under the designation PL-1, for use by their J-6B fighters. The difficulties associated with beam-riding guidance, particularly in a single-seat

fighter aircraft Fighter aircraft are fixed-wing military aircraft designed primarily for air-to-air combat. In military conflict, the role of fighter aircraft is to establish air superiority of the battlespace. Domination of the airspace above a battlefield ...

, were substantial, making the 'Alkali' primarily a short-range anti-

bomber A bomber is a military combat aircraft designed to attack ground and naval targets by dropping air-to-ground weaponry (such as bombs), launching torpedoes, or deploying air-launched cruise missiles. The first use of bombs dropped from an air ...

missile. Around

1967 Events January * January 1 – Canada begins a year-long celebration of the 100th anniversary of Confederation, featuring the Expo 67 World's Fair. * January 5 ** Spain and Romania sign an agreement in Paris, establishing full consular and ...

the K-5 was replaced by the K-55 (R-55 in service), which replaced the beam-riding seeker with the

semi-active radar homing Semi-active radar homing (SARH) is a common type of missile guidance system, perhaps the most common type for longer-range air-to-air and surface-to-air missile systems. The name refers to the fact that the missile itself is only a passive de ...

or infrared seekers of the K-13 (AA-2 'Atoll'). The weapon was heavier than the K-5, but had a smaller warhead. The K-55 remained in service through about

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...

, probably being retired with the last of the Sukhoi Su-9 interceptors.

Specifications (RS-2US / K-5MS)

* Length: * Wingspan: * Diameter: * Launch weight: * Speed: 800 m/s () * Range: * Guidance:

beam riding Beam-riding, also known as Line-Of-Sight Beam Riding (LOSBR) or beam guidance, is a technique of directing a missile to its target by means of radar or a laser beam. The name refers to the way the missile flies down the guidance beam, which is a ...

* Warhead:

Operators

Current operator

North Korea Used on MiG-21PFM.

Former operators

; : Both the

Soviet Air Force The Soviet Air Forces ( rus, Военно-воздушные силы, r=Voyenno-vozdushnyye sily, VVS; literally "Military Air Forces") were one of the air forces of the Soviet Union. The other was the Soviet Air Defence Forces. The Air Forces ...

(VVS) and the

Soviet Air Defence Forces The Soviet Air Defence Forces (russian: войска ПВО, ''voyska protivovozdushnoy oborony'', ''voyska PVO'', ''V-PVO'', lit. ''Anti-Air Defence Troops''; and formerly ''protivovozdushnaya oborona strany'', ''PVO strany'', lit. ''Anti-Air De ...

(PVO) operated the K-5. ; : The

People's Liberation Army Air Force The People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF; ), also known as the Chinese Air Force (中国空军) or the People's Air Force (人民空军), is an aerial service branch of the People's Liberation Army, the regular armed forces of the Peo ...

operated licensed Chinese copy of Kaliningrad K-5 designated as PL-1 (PL: short for Pi Li or Pili, meaning thunderbolt). ; : The

Czechoslovakian Air Force The Czechoslovak Air Force (''Československé letectvo'') or the Czechoslovak Army Air Force (''Československé vojenské letectvo'') was the air force branch of the Czechoslovak Army formed in October 1918. The armed forces of Czechoslovakia ce ...

operated RS-2U and RS-2US. ; : The

Hungarian Air Force The Hungarian Air Force ( hu, Magyar Légierő), is the air force branch of the Military of Hungary, Hungarian Defence Forces. The task of the current Hungarian Air Force is primarily defensive purposes. The flying units of the air force are or ...

operated RS-2US on MiG-19PMs, MiG-21PFs and MiG-21MFs. ; : Malian Air Force ; : The

Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mi ...

operated RS-2US on MiG-19PMs and MiG-21s, still in use as practice target.SRCP-WR z ITWL.
pl. ; : Locally produced A-90 copy by Electromecanica Ploiesti (1984)

References

;Citations ;Bibliography * *

External links

RS-2U - Air-to-Air missile
at aviation.ru

at airwar.ru

at missiles.ru

{{DEFAULTSORT:K005 Air-to-air missiles of the Soviet Union Cold War air-to-air missiles of the Soviet Union China–Soviet Union relations Military equipment introduced in the 1950s