History, Development, and Use of the SA-2 'Guideline'  / S-75 'Dvina' Air Defense Missile

 

 

Brief Operational History

The SA-2 was one of the Soviet Union's earliest SAM systems.  It is a general purpose land based anti-aircraft system meant to engage non-maneuvering targets, like bombers, at low to high altitudes.  It was first put into production in 1956, and has since been subject to continuous modernization.  It has been the longest serving and most widely exported anti-aircraft missile in the Soviet arsenal. 

It is a simple two-stage missile design with three sets of four cruciform fins.  Guidance control and initial roll stabilization is provided by electronics in two of the rear fins.  Once launched its main booster burns for 4-5 seconds before the primary sustainer motor ignites and burns for another 22 seconds.  The warhead of the missile is filled with 130 kg (287 pound) high explosive.  Its nose section is equipped to hold a variety of fuzes - proximity, impact, and command. 

Once the missile is fired it is guided to its target by a UHF link that has to be locked onto the missile within six seconds or the control of the missile will be lost.  In this case the warhead will self destruct after 60 seconds.  It will also self destruct after 115 seconds of flight time.

The missile was first used by the Soviet PVO (air defense forces) to defend the airspace of the Soviet Union.  To do this, hundreds of missile sites were built across the country.  The missile was also deployed on a Sverdlov Class cruiser (the Dzerzhinski) in the late 1950's where it was designated SA-N-2.  This version was not very successful and no other ships were modified to use the missile.

The SA-2 'Guideline' was more successful in its original role, especially against high flying spy planes like the U-2.  The most famous of these incidents occurred one May 1st, 1960 when the Soviets shot down a CIA pilot near Sverdlovsk (and one of their own MiG-19 interceptor aircraft).  The incident caused the United States to stop all overflights of the Soviet Union.

Another U-2 aircraft was also shot down by SA-2 'Guideline' missiles while overflying Cuba on October 27th 1962.  That same year eight Taiwanese operated U-2 spy planes and countless drones operated by the United States were shot down by a Chinese copy of the SA-2 called the HQ-1.  Two years later the SA-2 'Guideline' was delivered to the military forces of North Vietnam.  On July 24th of 1965 the North Vietnamese shot down a United States F-4C fighter aircraft.  Also in 1965, a USAF RB-47 was shot down by an SA-2 over the Black Sea.

The combat actions during the Vietnam War forced major advances in the fire control system of the SA-2 'Guideline' as the Soviets struggled to overcome the advanced ECM systems used by American aircraft.  Other combat actions of the SA-2 missile were two of the India-Pakistan conflicts, the 1967 Arab-Israeli war where many were captured, the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, by Syria in the Bekaa Valley in 1982, by Iraq during the 1990-91 Gulf War, and by Serbian forces in the former Yugoslavia.  Many had also been fired at US SR-71 aircraft by both Cuba and North Korea over the years.

It has since become one of the most widely used SAM's in the world.  The Soviet Union once had over 4600 SA-2's deployed in the late 1960's.  This declined to 2,400 missiles in 1988 and reached a low point of 150 missiles in 1996.  In 1993 the existing Russian SA-2 'Guideline' missiles underwent the Volga-M modernization program

This program replaces all analog components with digital ones, better guidance, increased jamming counter-measures, longer range (67 kilometers), and lower maintenance requirements.  This program is offered as a stand-alone system or as an upgrade kit.  The first kit was delivered to the Russian military in 1994, and the system has also been offered for export.

Outside of Russia the system is used by over 35 countries.  The four nations deploying the largest numbers of SA-2 'Guideline' missiles as of 1996 were Vietnam (with 360 missiles), Egypt (360 missiles),  North Korea (270 missiles), and Poland (240 missiles).  In many of these nations the SA-2 'Guideline' is expected to serve for many years to come.

Tactical Use and Limitations

The SA-2 'Guideline' anti-aircraft missile was used by Soviet PVO (air defense forces) to defend the national airspace of the Soviet Union.  It was deployed at a variety of static locations around the country in batteries of six missiles.  Each of these batteries would be equipped with a Fan Song fire control radar and a Side Net height finding radar.

The missile is very good at engaging conventional aircraft at all altitudes and in many ways became a standard that other systems were compared to.  It is also a very easy system to operate, even by relatively poorly trained troops. 

The fact that it had to be emplaced before firing is a significant limitation to the system.  To cope with this, the Soviets and many foreign users only stationed the missiles at key points on the battlefield.   The missile itself was also not very maneuverable in the air and can also be easily evaded by pilots who observe its launch.  This was proven many times by US pilots in Vietnam.

Deployment Chronology

The SA-2 'Guideline' is a missile with a long service history.  It replaced many of the heavy anti-aircraft guns, and has only been replaced by modern mobile anti-aircraft missile systems.  Here you can see what air defense systems the SA-2 'Guideline' replaced and what systems eventually replaced it.  You can find out more about each weapons system if we have them on our site by clicking on the links below.