thumb|150px|right|R-1 and R-2 rockets
The R-2 (NATO reporting name SS-2 Sibling) was a Soviet short-range ballistic missile developed from and having twice the range as the R-1 missile (itself a copy of the German V-2). Developed from 1946-1951, the R-2 entered service in numbers in 1953 and was deployed in mobile units throughout the Soviet Union until 1962. A sounding rocket derivative, the R-2A, tested a prototype of the dog-carrying capsule flown on Sputnik 2 in 1957. The same year, the R-2 was licensed for production in the People's Republic of China, where it entered service as the Dongfeng 1.
History
In 1945 the Soviets captured several key A-4 (V-2) rocket production facilities, and also gained the services of some German scientists and engineers related to the project. Under the supervision of the Special technical Commission (OTK) established by the Soviet Union to oversee rocketry operations in Germany, A-4s were assembled and studied. This prompted the 13 May 1946 decree of the Soviet Council of Ministers for, in part, the development of a Soviet copy of the A-4, which would be the first domestically produced ballistic missile. A further decree on 16 May converted the M.I. Kalinin Plant No. 88, which had produced artillery and tanks during World War II into NII-88, tasked with managing the Soviet Union's long-range rocketry programs. In April 1947 Josef Stalin authorized the production of the R-1 missile, the designation for the Soviet copy of V-2. NII-88 chief designer Sergei Korolev oversaw the R-1's development. and the R-1 missile system entered into service in the Soviet Army on 28 November 1950.
By the latter half of 1946, Korolev and rocket engineer Valentin Glushko had, with extensive input from German engineers, outlined a successor to the R-1 with an extended frame and a new engine designed by Glushko. Maximum body diameter remained , the same as the R-1,
The first two R-2 military units, the 54th and 56th brigades, were formed for the 1952 test launches. Starting in 1953, divisions were deployed to Zhytomyr; Kolomyia; , Novgorod Oblast; Kamyshin, Volgograd Oblast; Šiauliai, Lithuanian SSR; Dzhambul, Kazakh SSR; and Ordzhonikidze, and in the Far East.
R-2A sounding rocket
400px|R-2A with dog capsule and scientific pods (next to [[R-5 (missile))|thumb]]
The R-2 had a maximum altitude of , a two-fold improvement over that of the R-1. This made it a much more desirable vehicle for probing outer space. OKB-1 developed a draft plan for the R-2A sounding rocket in 1956. This new vehicle would loft a capsule housing two dogs and also two strap-on pods for scientific experiments.
Originally, OKB-1 planned to use the R2A for suborbital human test flights. This was on the assumption that a human orbital flight would not be feasible until the mid '60s. With the completion of the R-7 Semyorka ICBM, however, it became clear that a crewed mission into orbit would happen much sooner, and the plan was abandoned. In August 1958, a group of OKB-1 senior engineers and several R-2 missiles were sent to China in aid of that country's fledgling ballistic missile program.