V-2 Missile : German in full Vergeltungswaffen-2 (“Vengeance Weapon 2”), also called V-2 rocket or A-4, German ballistic missile of World War II, the forerunner of modern space rockets and long-range missiles.

Developed in Germany from 1936 through the efforts of scientists led by Wernher von Braun, it was first successfully launched on October 3, 1942, and was fired against Paris on September 6, 1944. Two days later the first of more than 1,100 V-2s was fired against Great Britain (the last on March 27, 1945). Belgium was also heavily bombarded. After the war both the United States and the Soviet Union captured large numbers of V-2s and used them in research that led to the development of their missile and space exploration programs.

The V-2 was 14 metres (47 feet) long, weighed 12,700–13,200 kg (28,000–29,000 pounds) at launching, and developed about 60,000 pounds of thrust, burning alcohol and liquid oxygen. The payload was about 725 kg (1,600 pounds) of high explosive, horizontal range was about 320 km (200 miles), and the peak altitude usually reached was roughly 80 km (50 miles).

The precursor of modern ballistic missiles was the German V-2, a single-stage, fin-stabilized missile propelled by liquid oxygen and ethyl alcohol to a maximum range of about 200 miles. The V-2 was officially designated the A-4, being derived from the fourth of the Aggregat series of experiments conducted at Kummersdorf and Peenemunde under General Walter Dornberger and the civilian scientist Wernher von Braun.

The most difficult technical problem facing the V-2 was achieving maximum range. An inclined launch ramp was normally used to give missiles maximum range, but this could not be used with the V-2 because the missile was quite heavy at lift-off (more than 12 tons) and would not be traveling fast enough to sustain anything approaching horizontal flight. Also, as the rocket used up its fuel its weight (and velocity) would change, and this had to be allowed for in the aiming. For these reasons the V-2 had to be launched straight up and then had to change to the flight angle that would give it maximum range. The Germans calculated this angle to be slightly less than 50°.

The change in direction mandated some sort of pitch control during flight, and, because a change in pitch would induce yaw, control was needed on the yaw axis too. Added to these problems was the natural tendency of a cylinder to rotate. Thus, the V-2 (and every ballistic missile afterward) needed a guidance and control system to deal with in-flight rolling, pitching, and yawing. Using three-axis autopilots adapted from German aircraft, the V-2 was controlled by large vertical fins and smaller stabilizing surfaces to dampen roll and by vanes attached to the horizontal fins to modify pitch and yaw. Vanes were also installed in the exhaust nozzle for thrust vector control.

A combination of in-flight weight changes and changes in atmospheric conditions presented additional problems. Even over the fairly limited course of a V-2 trajectory (with a range of approximately 200 miles and an altitude of roughly 50 miles), changes in missile velocity and air density produced drastic shifts in the distance between the centre of gravity and the centre of aerodynamic pressure. This meant the guidance system had to adjust its input to the control surfaces as the flight proceeded. As a result, V-2 accuracy never ceased to be a problem for the Germans.

Still, the missile caused a great deal of damage. The first V-2 used in combat was fired against Paris on Sept. 6, 1944. Two days later the first of more than 1,000 missiles was fired against London. By the end of the war 4,000 of these missiles had been launched from mobile bases against Allied targets. During February and March 1945, only weeks before the war in Europe ended, an average of 60 missiles was launched weekly. The V-2 killed an estimated five persons per launch (versus slightly more than two per launch for the V-1). Three major factors contributed to this difference. First, the V-2 warhead weighed more than 1,600 pounds (725 kilograms). Second, several V-2 attacks killed more than 100 people. Finally, there was no known defense against the V-2; it could not be intercepted and, traveling faster than sound, it arrived unexpectedly. The V-2 threat was eliminated only by bombing the launch sites and forcing the German army to retreat beyond missile range.

The V-2 obviously ushered in a new age of military technology. After the war there was intense competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to obtain these new missiles, as well as to obtain the German scientists who had developed them. The United States succeeded in capturing both Dornberger and von Braun as well as more than 60 V-2s; it was not revealed precisely what (or whom) the Soviets captured. However, given the relative immaturity of ballistic missile technology at that time, neither country achieved usable ballistic missiles for some time. During the late 1940s and early 1950s most of the nuclear competition between the two countries dealt with strategic bombers. Events in 1957 reshaped this contest.