Scud is a series of
tactical ballistic missiles developed by the
Soviet Union during the
Cold War. It was exported widely to other countries, both
Second and
Third World countries. The term comes from the
NATO reporting name "Scud" which was attached to the missile by Western
intelligence agencies. The Russian names for the missile are the
R-11 (the first version),
R-17 (later
R-300)
Elbrus (later developments). The name Scud has been widely used to refer to these missiles and the wide variety of derivative variants developed in other countries based on the Soviet design.