Development In the early 1950s, the
United States Air Force rapidly accelerated its development of long-range jet bombers carrying nuclear weapons. The USAF program led to the deployment of
Boeing B-47 Stratojet supported by
aerial refueling aircraft to extend its range deep into the Soviet Union. The USAF quickly followed the B-47 with the development of the
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress, which had greater range and payload than the B-47. The range, speed, and payload of these US bombers posed a significant threat to the Soviet Union in the event of a war between the two countries. Consequently, the Soviets initiated the development of improved air defence systems. Although the
Soviet Air Defence Forces had large numbers of anti-aircraft artillery (AAA), including radar-directed batteries, the limitations of guns versus high-altitude jet bombers were obvious. Therefore, the Soviet Air Defence Forces began the development of missile systems to replace the World War II-vintage gun defences. In 1953, KB-2 began the development of what became the S-75 under the direction of
Pyotr Grushin. This program focused on producing a missile which could bring down a large, non-maneuvering, high-altitude aircraft. As such it did not need to be highly maneuverable, merely fast and able to resist aircraft counter-measures. For such a pioneering system, development proceeded rapidly, and testing began a few years later. In 1957, the wider public first became aware of the S-75 when the missile was shown at that year's
May Day parade in
Moscow.
Initial deployment Wide-scale deployment started in 1957, with various upgrades following over the next few years. The S-75 was never meant to replace the
S-25 Berkut surface-to-air missile sites around
Moscow, but it did replace high-altitude anti-aircraft guns, such as the
KS-30 and
KS-19. Between mid-1958 and 1964, US intelligence assets located more than 600 S-75 sites in the USSR. These sites tended to cluster around population centers, industrial complexes, and government control centers. A ring of sites was also located around likely bomber routes into the Soviet heartland. By the mid-1960s, the Soviet Union had ended the deployment of the S-75 with perhaps 1,000 operational sites. In addition to the Soviet Union, several S-75 batteries were deployed during the 1960s in
East Germany to protect Soviet forces stationed in that country. Later the system was sold to most
Warsaw Pact countries and was provided to China, North Korea, and eventually, North Vietnam. During the
Cuban Missile Crisis, a U-2 piloted by USAF Major
Rudolf Anderson was shot down over Cuba by an S-75 in October 1962. In 1965,
North Vietnam asked for assistance against American airpower, since their own air-defence system lacked the ability to shoot down aircraft flying at high altitude. After some discussion it was agreed to supply the PAVN with the S-75. The decision was not made lightly, because it greatly increased the chances that one would fall into US hands for study. Site preparation started early in the year, and the US detected the program almost immediately on 5 April 1965. On 24 July 1965, a
USAF F-4C aircraft was shot down by an S-75. Three days later, the US responded with
Operation Iron Hand to attack the other sites before they could become operational. Most of the S-75 were deployed around the
Hanoi-
Haiphong area and were off-limits to attack (as were local airfields) for political reasons. On 8 September 1965, during the
1965 Indo-Pakistani war, an
Indian S-75 Dvina was fired at an unidentified target believed to have been on a night mission above
Ghaziabad near
Delhi during the height of a paratrooper scare. Subsequent news reports would claim the destruction of a
Pakistani
C-130 west of Delhi, showing a photograph of the wreckage of the self-destructed missile as evidence of airplane wreckage. According to Indian sources, no Pakistani aircraft penetrated so deeply into Indian territory. The missile system was used widely throughout the world, especially in the
Middle East, where Egypt and
Syria used them to defend against the
Israeli Air Force, with the air defence net accounting for the majority of the downed Israeli aircraft. The last success seems to have occurred during the
War in Abkhazia (1992–1993), when Georgian missiles shot down a Russian
Sukhoi Su-27 fighter near Gudauta on March 19, 1993. During the
siege of Bihac, in the
Bosnian War (1992-1995),
Serb forces from Krajina fired at least three S-75 in the ground-to-ground mode at the Bosnian city of
Cazin. In the
Yemeni Civil War (2015-present),
Houthis modified some of their S-75 into
surface-to-surface ballistic missiles to attack Saudi bases with them.
War in Vietnam: Countermeasures and counter-countermeasures Museum. Between 1964 and early 1965 the Vietnamese had nothing to threaten American pilots in the air. U.S aircraft flew at an altitude of , and the Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns were unable to reach them. However, after an S-75 shot down a US F-4 Phantom aircraft, the US bombers began to descend below , below the minimum operational height of the Dvina. This brought them within the reach of Vietnamese anti-aircraft guns. On July 24, 1965, four US Air Force McDonnell
F-4C Phantoms took part in an airstrike against the
Điện Biên Phủ munitions storage depot and the Lang Chi munitions factory west of Hanoi. One was shot down and three damaged by S-75s. This was the first time US aircraft were attacked by SAMs during the Vietnam War. Two days later President Johnson gave the order to attack known S-75 positions outside the exclusion zone. On the morning of July 27, 48
F-105s participated in the strike,
Operation Spring High. The Vietnamese knew US aircraft were coming, and set up many and anti-aircraft guns at the two SAM sites. These anti-aircraft guns were lethal at close range. The Vietnamese shot down six aircraft and more than half of the remaining US aircraft suffered damage from ground fire. However, the Vietnamese had replaced the SAMs with white-painted bundles of
bamboo. Operation Spring High had destroyed two decoy targets for the loss of six aircraft and five pilots. During the Vietnam war, the Soviet Union delivered 95 S-75 systems and 7,658 missiles to the Vietnamese. 6,806 missiles were launched or removed by outdating. According to the Vietnamese, the S-75 shot down 1,046 aircraft, or 31% of all downed US aircraft. By comparison, air-defense guns brought down 60% and 9% were shot down by MiG fighters. The higher rate of anti-aircraft artillery is partially caused by the fact that gun units received data from the S-75 radar stations that significantly improved their effectiveness.
Replacement systems Soviet Air Defence Forces started to replace the S-75 with the vastly superior
S-300 system in the 1980s. The S-75 remains in widespread service throughout the world, with some level of operational ability in 35 countries. In the 2000s, Vietnam and Egypt are tied for the largest deployments at 280 missiles each, while North Korea has 270. The Chinese also deploy the HQ-2, an upgrade of the S-75, in relatively large numbers. ==Description==