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).

Contents 1 OKB-134 Toropov 2 GosMKB Vympel 3 Notable projects 3.1 Air-to-air missiles 3.2 Air-to-surface missiles 3.3 Surface-to-air missiles 4 References

[edit] 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]

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notable projects

[edit] Air-to-air missiles

• K-13/R-13
• R-23/R-24
• R-27
• R-33
• R-37
• R-73
• R-77

[edit] Air-to-surface missiles

• Kh-29

• Terra-3 laser

[edit] Surface-to-air missiles

• 3M9 SA missile for Kub missile system

[edit] 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

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