Overview
Development of the R-14 began by directive on 2 July 1958. The preliminary design was completed in December 1958, with flight tests beginning in June 1960 and completed in February 1961. The missile was accepted into service on 24 April 1961; initial operational capability for the first division of four launchers was achieved on 31 December 1961, with the first regiment organized the next day. By the end of 1962 two regiments were fully operational in the Ukraine and Latvia, with later surface launch pad sites in Kaliningrad and Belarus. A regiment consisted of two divisions, with eight launchers total; by the 1970s one mobile regiment consisted of 3 control units and 4-5 launchers. Upon introduction, the primary targets of R-14s were PGM-17 Thor, Thor missile sites in Britain, PGM-19 Jupiter, Jupiter missile sites in Italy and Turkey, and the UGM-27 Polaris, Polaris missile submarine base at Rota, Spain. Production of the missile was initially done at Factory 586 in Dnepropetrovsk and Factory 1001 in Krasnoyarsk, with the RD-216 engine built only at Factory 586. From 1962 onward, production was shifted exclusively to Aviation Factory 166 in Omsk. Prior to the onset of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, the Soviet Union planned to deploy two regiments with 32 R-14 IRBMs and 16 launchers to Cuba. By the time the United States declared a quarantine of the island, 24 one-megaton warheads had arrived but no missiles or launchers had yet been shipped. The warheads were removed and the deployment of the R-14 to Cuba was cancelled after the crisis was resolved. In May 1960, development of the R-14U (universal) version, which could be launched from both surface pads or 'Chusovaya' complex missile silos, was authorized and test launches began in January 1962. In the silo-launched version, each regiment consisted of two divisions, each division being a single emplacement with a hardened command and control technical point and three silos. The silos were placed at least 100 m from the other about the technical point. Each silo was 30 m deep and hardened to withstand overpressures of . The silo design was accepted for service in June 1963, and the first R-14U silo division became operational at Priekule, Latvia in 1964. Complexes were also built in the Russian Far East, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, and Lithuania.R-14UDerivatives
The missile was the basis of the Kosmos-3 launch vehicle family. In 1964, the R-14 was equipped with a smaller second stage to create the 65S3 booster and eight were flown over the next year from LC-41 at Baikonur. By 1966, the fully operational 11K65 booster was in use, but it was flown only four times before being succeeded by the definitive 11K65M launcher, used for assorted light civilian and military satellites, most being launched from Plesetsk (only some of them were flown from Kapustin Yar). This launch vehicle was retired from service in 2010.Operators
; *Strategic Rocket ForcesSee also
* List of missiles * R-12 Dvina * DF-26 * Agni-IVReferences
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