Soviet Air Power by Kenneth Whiting

Author:Kenneth Whiting [Whiting, Kenneth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000312409
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

up the pair of AAMs carried by the MiG-23 Flogger. The Apex is also used on the MiG-21 and MiG-25. The third of the new generation of AAMs was the AA-8 Aphid, a close combat weapon, probably the successor to the Atoll. It also has both radar-and IR-guidance versions and is currently used on both the MiG-21 Fishbed and MiG-23 Flogger.

From the late 1950s to the present, PVO Strany acquired about a dozen different surface-to-air missiles (SAMs), ranging from the first relatively primitive SA-1 Guild* to the latest SA-13. (See table 3.) Rather early on, the Russians were aware that interceptors had definite limitations in fending off enemy aircraft, limitations resulting from bad weather and, in the case of the American U-2, altitude. The answer to these dilemmas seemed to lie in the development of SAMs capable of operating in adverse weather conditions and at extremely high altitudes. The shooting down of the U-2 in May 1960 reinforced the conviction that SAMs were a viable proposition.

The first SAM, the SA-1 Guild, was a 40-foot, liquid-propelled missile with a range of around 30 miles. A product of the 1950s, the SA-1 is obsolescent by now, but given the Soviet track record, that does not mean that it is not still part of PVO Strany's air defense. The SA-1 was never shipped abroad and thus not too much is known about it. Some 3,000 SA-1 Guilds were deployed around Moscow in the late 1950s.39 However, its successor, the SA-2 Guidelines, became famous in Vietnam and the Middle East in the late 1960s and early 1970s. A medium-range, radio-controlled missile guided by moveable tail surfaces, the SA-2 is driven by a solid-propellant booster and a liquid sustainer. It has a slant range of about 30 miles and a ceiling of 60,000 feet. The SA-2 is used in conjunction with a Fan Song radar. American pilots became well acquainted with the Guideline in the Vietnam War. Hanoi deployed anywhere from 180 to 200 launchers during the height of the conflict and usually had some four to five hundred missiles on hand for reload.40 The pilots learned to outmaneuver the SA-2, to operate in "chaff corridors," and to take out the SAM sites by "Wild Weasel" attacks using air-to-surface missiles that homed in on the Fan Song radar beams.41

Both the SA-1 and SA-2 were unable to cope with a low-level attack, which soon became the preferred option in American planning. Coming into service in 1961, the SA-3 Goa, designed to fill in the low-level gap, is a two-stage, command-guided missile with a range of 12-15 miles. It is mobile, the original model being carried in pairs

Table 3

Soviet Surface-to-Air Missiles

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