The R-60/ AA-8 air-to-air missile was intended as a major upgrade over the flawed R-3/ AA-2 Atoll. And in some ways it was. It was half the size, featured a better sensor, far greater manoeuvrability, close range and off boresight tracking capabilities.

The cost of its concept was exceptionally short range and a small warhead. It was a dogfight missile that sat somewhere between the cannon and traditional IR missiles. This would have been fine if it wasn't for the concept behind the aircraft that carried it...

I hope you enjoy this video. Finding information about the R-60 was much harder than I thought, but I feel like I understand it much better now!

Sources:

Yefim Gordon's "Soviet and Russian Aircraft Weapons" provided some foundational information
The amazing Secret Projects forum has a great thread on the R-60: https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/thre...
Additional source for some detailed pieces: https://www.armedconflicts.com/SOV-R-...
Useful component breakdown and pictures: http://militaryrussia.ru/blog/topic-1...