Misplaced Pages

#626373

100-463: Grushin MKB Fakel (missile developer), The S-75 (Russian: С-75; NATO reporting name SA-2 Guideline ) is a Soviet-designed, high-altitude air defence system. It is built around a surface-to-air missile with command guidance . Following its first deployment in 1957 it became one of the most widely deployed air defence systems in history. It scored the first destruction of an enemy aircraft by

200-569: A Chief designer of KhAZ OKB), but after the war began it was destroyed in an air raid. He worked as the Chief engineer on Plant 21 and later as vice chief designer to Lavochkin at his Lavochkin design bureau . He was the chief developer of a number of air defence systems at KB Fakel (former OKB-2) located in Khimki . This design bureau now bears his name. For the design of the V-750 missile,

300-633: A UN resolution to establish a nuclear-free zone in Latin America when the other Soviet-aligned countries abstained, or why in 1964 Romania opposed the Soviet-proposed "strong collective riposte" against China (and these are examples solely from the 1963–1964 period). Soviet disinformation tried to convince the West that Ceaușescu's empowerment was a dissimulation in connivance with Moscow. To an extent this worked, as some historians came to see

400-520: A conventional warhead of similar weight. Typical range for the missile is about 45 km (28 mi), with a maximum altitude around 20,000 m (66,000 ft). The radar and guidance system imposed a fairly long short-range cutoff of about 500 to 1,000 m (1,600 to 3,300 ft), making them fairly safe for engagements at low level. The S-75 typically uses the P-12 early warning radar (also known by its NATO codename, "Spoon Rest"), which has

500-467: A lethal radius of about 65 m (200 ft) at lower altitudes, but at higher altitudes the thinner atmosphere allows for a wider radius of up to 250 m (800 ft). The missile itself is accurate to about 75 m (250 ft), which explains why two were typically fired in a salvo. One version, the S-75AK, mounted a 295 kg (650 lb) nuclear warhead of an estimated 15 kiloton yield or

600-708: A missile, the Shrike could be neutralized with the side-pointing technique without sacrificing any S-75s. Another tactic was a "false launch" in which missile guidance signals were transmitted without a missile being launched. This could distract enemy pilots, or even occasionally cause them to drop ordnance prematurely to lighten their aircraft enough to dodge the nonexistent missile. At the same time, evasive maneuvers were used, and intensive bombardments of identified SAM firing positions were organized. Under these conditions, camouflage and radio silence became especially important. After combat launches, an anti-aircraft missile division

700-603: A nationalist, as well as privileged access to NATO counterparts and a seat at various European forums which otherwise he would not have had (for instance, Romania and the Soviet-led remainder of the Warsaw Pact formed two distinct groups in the elaboration of the Helsinki Final Act ). When Andrei Grechko assumed command of the Warsaw Pact, both Romania and Albania had for all practical purposes defected from

800-544: A pan-German government, under conditions of withdrawal of the four powers ' armies and German neutrality, but all were refused by the other foreign ministers, Dulles (US), Eden (UK), and Bidault (France). Proposals for the reunification of Germany were nothing new: earlier on 20 March 1952, talks about a German reunification, initiated by the so-called ' Stalin Note ', ended after the United Kingdom , France , and

900-539: 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

1000-435: A range of about 275 km (171 mi). The P-12 provides early detection of incoming aircraft, which are then handed off to the acquisition Fan Song radar. These radars, having a range of about 65 km (40 mi), are used to refine the location, altitude, and speed of the hostile aircraft. The Fan Song system consists of two antennas operating on different frequencies, one providing elevation (altitude) information and

1100-581: A site in October 1965. The Air Force fitted B-66 bombers with powerful jammers (which blinded the early warning radars) and developed smaller jamming pods for fighters (which denied range information to enemy radars). Later developments included the Wild Weasel aircraft, which were fitted with AGM-45 Shrike missile systems made to home in on the radar from the threat. The Soviets and Vietnamese were able to adapt to some of these tactics. The USSR upgraded

SECTION 10

#1732791241627

1200-572: A surface-to-air missile, with the shooting down of a Taiwanese Martin RB-57D Canberra over China on 7 October 1959 that was hit by a salvo of three V-750 (1D) missiles at an altitude of 20 km (66,000 ft). This success was credited to Chinese fighter aircraft at the time to keep the S-75 program secret. This system first gained international fame when an S-75 battery, using the newer, longer-range, higher-altitude V-750VN (13D) missile

1300-833: A threat to the national security of the peaceable states; [...] in these circumstances the peaceable European states must take the necessary measures to safeguard their security". One of the founding members, East Germany , was allowed to re-arm by the Soviet Union and the National People's Army was established as the armed forces of the country to counter the rearmament of West Germany. The USSR concentrated on its own recovery, seizing and transferring most of Germany's industrial plants, and it exacted war reparations from East Germany, Hungary , Romania , and Bulgaria using Soviet-dominated joint enterprises. It also instituted trading arrangements deliberately designed to favour

1400-412: Is partially caused by the fact that gun units received data from the S-75 radar stations that significantly improved their effectiveness. 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

1500-919: The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) in 1992, and the Shanghai Five in 1996, which was renamed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) after Uzbekistan 's addition in 2001. In November 2005, the Polish government opened its Warsaw Treaty archives to the Institute of National Remembrance , which published some 1,300 declassified documents in January 2006, yet the Polish government reserved publication of 100 documents, pending their military declassification. Eventually, 30 of

1600-558: 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

1700-667: The Czech Republic and Slovakia as separate countries), as did the Baltic states . Before the creation of the Warsaw Pact, the Czechoslovak leadership, fearful of a rearmed Germany, sought to create a security pact with East Germany and Poland. These states protested strongly against the re-militarization of West Germany . The Warsaw Pact was put in place as a consequence of the rearming of West Germany inside NATO . Soviet leaders, like many European leaders on both sides of

1800-491: 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

1900-610: The Imre Nagy government of the withdrawal of Hungary from the Warsaw Pact, Soviet troops entered the country and removed the government . Soviet forces crushed the nationwide revolt, leading to the death of an estimated 2,500 Hungarian citizens. The multi-national Communist armed forces' sole joint action was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia , another Warsaw Pact member state, in August 1968. All member countries, with

2000-532: The Iron Curtain , feared Germany being once again a military power and a direct threat. The consequences of German militarism remained a fresh memory among the Soviets and Eastern Europeans. As the Soviet Union already had an armed presence and political domination all over its eastern satellite states by 1955, the pact has been long considered "superfluous", and because of the rushed way in which it

2100-729: The Marshall Plan ." In November 1956, Soviet forces invaded Hungary , a Warsaw Pact member state, and violently put down the Hungarian Revolution . After that, the USSR made bilateral 20-year-treaties with Poland (17 December 1956), the GDR (12 March 1957), Romania (15 April 1957; Soviet forces were later removed as part of Romania's de-satellization ), and Hungary (27 May 1957), ensuring that Soviet troops were deployed in these countries. The founding signatories of

SECTION 20

#1732791241627

2200-796: The Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance ( TFCMA ), was a collective defense treaty signed in Warsaw , Poland , between the Soviet Union and seven other Eastern Bloc socialist republics of Central and Eastern Europe in May 1955, during the Cold War . The term "Warsaw Pact" commonly refers to both the treaty itself and its resultant military alliance , the Warsaw Treaty Organization ( WTO ). The Warsaw Pact

2300-641: The Vietnam War to successfully defend Hanoi and Haiphong against US bombing. It was produced in the People's Republic of China under the names HQ-1 (under licence) and HQ-2 (modified, named FT-2000A). Egyptian engineers produced a reverse-engineered S-75 with the name Tayir-as-Sabah . 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

2400-407: The 48-kilometre (30 mi) 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 23 mm (0.91 in) and 37 mm (1.5 in) 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

2500-654: The American hegemony (mainly military and economic) over NATO, all decisions of the North Atlantic Alliance required unanimous consensus in the North Atlantic Council and the entry of countries into the alliance was not subject to domination but rather a natural democratic process. In the Warsaw Pact, decisions were ultimately taken by the Soviet Union alone; the countries of the Warsaw Pact were not equally able to negotiate their entry in

2600-638: The EDC was delayed but the US representatives made it clear to Adenauer that the EDC would have to become a part of NATO. Memories of the Nazi occupation were still strong, and the rearmament of Germany was feared by France too. On 30 August 1954, the French Parliament rejected the EDC, thus ensuring its failure and blocking a major objective of US policy towards Europe: to associate West Germany militarily with

2700-593: The Linebacker II campaign, the shootdown rate of the S-75 against the B-52s was 7.52% (15 B-52s were shot down, 5 B-52s were heavily damaged for 266 missiles). However, some of the U.S aircraft which "crashed in flight accidents" in fact were lost due to S-75 missiles. When landing at an airfield in Thailand, one B-52 that had been heavily damaged by a SAM rolled off the runway and exploded on mines installed around

2800-557: The Pact consisted of the following communist governments: [REDACTED]   Mongolia : In July 1963, the Mongolian People's Republic asked to join the Warsaw Pact under Article 9 of the treaty. Due to the emerging Sino-Soviet split , Mongolia remained in an observer status. In what was the first instance of a Soviet initiative being blocked by a non-Soviet member of the Warsaw Pact, Romania blocked Mongolia's accession to

2900-422: The Pact nor the decisions taken. Although nominally a "defensive" alliance, the Pact's primary function was to safeguard the Soviet Union's hegemony over its Eastern European satellites, with the Pact's only direct military actions having been the invasions of its own member states to keep them from breaking away. Romania and, until 1968, Albania – were exceptions. Together with Yugoslavia, which broke with

3000-439: The Pact. In the early 1960s, Grechko initiated programs meant to preempt Romanian doctrinal heresies from spreading to other Pact members. Romania's doctrine of territorial defense threatened the Pact's unity and cohesion. No other country succeeded in escaping from the Warsaw Pact like Romania and Albania did. For example, the mainstays of Romania's tank forces were locally developed models. Soviet troops were deployed to Romania for

3100-406: The Shrike. One of them was to point the radar to the side and then turn it off briefly. Since the Shrike was a relatively primitive anti-radiation missile, it would follow the beam away from the radar and then simply crash when it lost the signal (after the radar was turned off). SAM crews could briefly illuminate a hostile aircraft to see if the target was equipped with a Shrike. If the aircraft fired

S-75 Dvina - Misplaced Pages Continue

3200-478: The Soviet Union before the Warsaw Pact was created, these three countries completely rejected the Soviet doctrine formulated for the Pact. Albania officially left the organization in 1968, in protest of its invasion of Czechoslovakia. Romania had its own reasons for remaining a formal member of the Warsaw Pact, such as Nicolae Ceaușescu 's interest of preserving the threat of a Pact invasion so he could sell himself as

3300-890: The Soviet Union arrogated the right to define socialism and communism and act as the leader of the global socialist movement. A corollary to this was the necessity of military intervention if a country appeared to be "violating" core socialist ideas, i.e. breaking away from the Soviet sphere of influence , explicitly stated in the Brezhnev Doctrine . estimates On 12 March 1999, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland joined NATO ; Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovenia and Slovakia joined in March 2004; Croatia and Albania joined on 1 April 2009. The USSR's successor Russia and some other post-Soviet states joined

3400-477: The Soviets that it would remain in the Pact, this broke the brackets of Eastern Europe, which could no longer be held together militarily by the Warsaw Pact. Independent national politics made feasible with the perestroika and liberal glasnost policies revealed shortcomings and failures (i.e. of the soviet-type economic planning model) and induced institutional collapse of the Communist government in

3500-903: The USSR , and the Chief of Combined Staff of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization was also a First Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Soviet Armed Forces . On the contrary, the Secretary General of NATO and Chair of the NATO Military Committee are positions with fixed term of office held on a random rotating basis by officials from all member countries through consensus. Despite

3600-649: The USSR in 1991. From 1989 to 1991, Communist governments were overthrown in Albania , Poland , Hungary , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Romania , Bulgaria , Yugoslavia , and the Soviet Union . As the last acts of the Cold War were playing out, several Warsaw Pact states (Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary) participated in the US-led coalition effort to liberate Kuwait in the Gulf War . On 25 February 1991,

3700-543: 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

3800-585: The United States and the Soviet Union and their respective allies implemented strategic policies aimed at the containment of each other in Europe, while working and fighting for influence within the wider Cold War on the international stage. These included the Korean War , Vietnam War , Bay of Pigs invasion , Dirty War , Cambodian–Vietnamese War , and others. In 1956, following the declaration of

3900-687: The United States insisted that a unified Germany should not be neutral and should be free to join the European Defence Community (EDC) and rearm. James Dunn (US), who met in Paris with Eden, Konrad Adenauer (West Germany), and Robert Schuman (France), affirmed that "the object should be to avoid discussion with the Russians and to press on the European Defense Community". According to John Gaddis , "there

4000-539: The United States over the Western Bloc . All Warsaw Pact commanders had to be, and have been, senior officers of the Soviet Union at the same time and appointed for an unspecified term length: the Supreme Commander of the Unified Armed Forces of the Warsaw Treaty Organization , which commanded and controlled all the military forces of the member countries, was also a First Deputy Minister of Defence of

4100-529: The Vietnamese had nothing to threaten American pilots in the air. U.S aircraft flew at an altitude of 4 to 5 kilometres (13,000 to 16,000 ft), 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 3 kilometres (10,000 ft), below the minimum operational height of the Dvina. This brought them within

S-75 Dvina - Misplaced Pages Continue

4200-802: The Warsaw Pact was declared disbanded at a meeting of defence and foreign ministers from remaining Pact countries meeting in Hungary. On 1 July 1991, in Prague , the Czechoslovak President Václav Havel formally ended the 1955 Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation and Mutual Assistance and so disestablished the Warsaw Treaty after 36 years of military alliance with the USSR. The USSR disestablished itself in December 1991. The Warsaw Treaty's organization

4300-478: The Warsaw Pact, regardless of military power, was the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. The event, which goes back to an idea by Otto von Habsburg , caused the mass exodus of GDR citizens and the media-informed population of Eastern Europe felt the loss of power of their rulers and the Iron Curtain broke down completely. Though Poland's new Solidarity government under Lech Wałęsa initially assured

4400-449: The Warsaw Pact. The Soviet government agreed to station troops in Mongolia in 1966. At first, China , North Korea , and North Vietnam had observer status, but China withdrew in 1961 as a consequence of the Albanian-Soviet split , in which China backed Albania against the USSR as part of the larger Sino-Soviet split of the early 1960s. For 36 years, NATO and the Warsaw Pact never directly waged war against each other in Europe;

4500-429: The West. The US Department of State started to elaborate alternatives: West Germany would be invited to join NATO or, in the case of French obstructionism, strategies to circumvent a French veto would be implemented in order to obtain German rearmament outside NATO. On 23 October 1954 , the admission of the Federal Republic of Germany to the North Atlantic Pact was finally decided. The incorporation of West Germany into

4600-403: The airfield to protect from the guerrillas; only one crewman survived. Subsequently, this B-52 was counted as "crashed in flight accidents". According to Dana Drenkowski and Lester W. Grau , the number of US aircraft confirmed by themselves as lost is uncorroborated since the US figures are also suspect. If a plane was badly damaged but managed to land, the USAF did not count as a loss even if it

4700-470: The center. This unique "flower" shape led to the sites being easily recognizable in reconnaissance photos. Typically another six missiles are stored on tractor-trailers near the center of the site. The V-750 is a two-stage missile consisting of a solid-fuel booster and a storable liquid-fuel upper stage, which burns AK-20 (based on red fuming nitric acid ) as the oxidizer and TG-02 (toxic mixture of 50-52% triethylamine and 48-50% isomeric xylidine ) as

4800-402: 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

4900-486: The collective security system in Europe". The Soviets then decided to make a new proposal to the governments of the US, UK, and France to accept the participation of the US in the proposed General European Agreement. As another argument deployed against the Soviet proposal was that it was perceived by Western powers as "directed against the North Atlantic Pact and its liquidation", the Soviets decided to declare their "readiness to examine jointly with other interested parties

5000-455: The complete withdrawal of the Soviet Army from its territory in 1958. The Romanian campaign for independence culminated on 22 April 1964 when the Romanian Communist Party issued a declaration proclaiming that: "Every Marxist–Leninist Party has a sovereign right...to elaborate, choose or change the forms and methods of socialist construction." and "There exists no "parent" party and "offspring" party, no "superior" and "subordinated" parties, but only

5100-457: The conflict was fought on an ideological basis and through proxy wars . Both NATO and the Warsaw Pact led to the expansion of military forces and their integration into the respective blocs. The Warsaw Pact's largest military engagement was the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia , its own member state, in August 1968 (with the participation of all pact nations except Albania and Romania ), which, in part, resulted in Albania withdrawing from

SECTION 50

#1732791241627

5200-411: The country. Moscow controlled the Communist parties that ruled the satellite states, and they followed orders from the Kremlin. Historian Mark Kramer concludes: "The net outflow of resources from eastern Europe to the Soviet Union was approximately $ 15 billion to $ 20 billion in the first decade after World War II, an amount roughly equal to the total aid provided by the United States to western Europe under

5300-401: 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

5400-415: The development of the MAI Stal plane ( Russian : "Сталь" , 1931–1934). Later, he became a chief designer of KB MAI (1934–1940), where he developed the light bomber BB-MAI and some other designs. [1] His later designed the heavy long-range fighter IDS ( Russian : ИДС ), later renamed Gr-1 after Grushin. The plane made its first flights in 1940-1941 at Kharkov Aviation Plant ( KhAZ ) 135 (with Grushin as

5500-412: 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,

5600-577: 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. Between 1964 and early 1965

5700-424: The early-warning radars and coordinate battalion actions. The battalions will contain several batteries with their associated acquisition and targeting radars. Each battalion will typically have six, semi-fixed, single-rail launchers for their V-750 missiles positioned approximately 60 to 100 m (200 to 330 ft) apart from each other in a hexagonal "flower" pattern, with radars and guidance systems placed in

5800-458: The end of the CDU's leading political role in the West German Bundestag. Consequently, Molotov, fearing that the EDC would be directed in the future against the USSR and "seeking to prevent the formation of groups of European States directed against the other European States", made a proposal for a General European Treaty on Collective Security in Europe "open to all European States without regard to their social systems", which would have included

5900-438: The establishment of a system of European collective security based on the participation of all European states irrespective of their social and political systems" established the Warsaw Pact in response to the integration of the Federal Republic of Germany into NATO, declaring that: "a remilitarized Western Germany and the integration of the latter in the North-Atlantic bloc [...] increase the danger of another war and constitutes

6000-409: The exception of the Socialist Republic of Romania and the People's Republic of Albania , participated in the invasion. The German Democratic Republic provided only minimal support. (Albania withdrew from the pact one month after this intervention.) In 1989, popular civil and political public discontent toppled the Communist governments of the Warsaw Treaty countries. The beginning of the end of

6100-402: The extreme rear and (in most models) much smaller fins on the nose. The missiles are guided using radio control signals (sent on one of three channels) from the guidance computers at the site. The earlier S-75 models received their commands via two sets of four small antennas in front of the forward fins while the D model and later models used four much larger strip antennas running between

SECTION 60

#1732791241627

6200-453: The forward and middle fins. The guidance system at an S-75 site can handle only one target at a time, but it can direct three missiles against it. Additional missiles could be fired against the same target after one or more missiles of the first salvo had completed their run, freeing the radio channel. The missile typically mounts a 195 kg (430 lb) fragmentation warhead, with proximity, contact, and command fusing . The warhead has

6300-420: The fuel. The booster fires for about 4–5 seconds and the main engine for about 22 seconds, by which time the missile is traveling at about Mach 3 (2,200 mph). The booster mounts four large, cropped- delta wing fins that have small control surfaces in their trailing edges to control roll . The upper stage has smaller cropped-deltas near the middle of the airframe, with a smaller set of control surfaces at

6400-416: The hand of Moscow behind every Romanian initiative. For instance, when Romania became the only Eastern European country to maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, some historians have speculated that this was at Moscow's whim. However, this theory fails upon closer inspection. Even during the Cold War, some thought that Romanian actions were done at the behest of the Soviets, but Soviet anger at said actions

6500-405: The intelligence and security services. Not only did Romania not participate in joint operations with the KGB, but it also set up "departments specialized in anti-KGB counterespionage". Romania was neutral in the Sino-Soviet split . Its neutrality in the Sino-Soviet dispute along with being the small Communist country with the most influence in global affairs enabled Romania to be recognized by

6600-472: The interceptor component of the S-75 Dvina air defense system, Grushin was awarded the Hero of Socialist Labour in 1958. This missile downed U-2 spy-plane of Francis Powers on May 1, 1960 near Sverdlovsk . In 1981 he received his second Hero of Socialist Labour award for the S-300 missile system. He was a laureate of the Lenin Prize (1963), and held 7 Orders of Lenin , among other awards. Warsaw Pact The Warsaw Pact ( WP ), formally

6700-503: The large family of communist and workers' parties having equal rights." and also "there are not and there can be no unique patterns and recipes". This amounted to a declaration of political and ideological independence from Moscow. Following Albania's withdrawal from the Warsaw Pact, Romania remained the only Pact member with an independent military doctrine which denied the Soviet Union use of its armed forces and avoided absolute dependence on Soviet sources of military equipment. Romania

6800-457: 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. The Soviet Union used a fairly standard organizational structure for S-75 units. Other countries that have employed the S-75 may have modified this structure. Typically, the S-75 is organized into a regimental structure with three subordinate battalions. The regimental headquarters will control

6900-417: The last time in 1963, as part of a Warsaw Pact exercise. After 1964, the Soviet Army was barred from returning to Romania, as the country refused to take part in joint Pact exercises. Even before the advent of Nicolae Ceaușescu , Romania was in fact an independent country, as opposed to the rest of the Warsaw Pact. To some extent, it was even more independent than Cuba (a communist Soviet-aligned state that

7000-401: The loss of 15 of the bombers and damage to numerous others. The ECM proved to be generally effective, but repetitive USAF flight tactics early in the bombing campaign increased the vulnerability of the bombers and the North Vietnamese missile crews adopted a practice of firing large S-75 salvos to overwhelm the planes' defensive countermeasures (see Operation Linebacker II ). By the conclusion of

7100-401: The memoirs of Soviet advisers, on average an anti-aircraft missile unit destroyed 5-6 American aircraft before being put out of action. Despite these advances, the US was able to come up with effective ECM packages for the B-52E and later models. When the B-52s flew large-scale raids against Hanoi and Haiphong over an eleven-day period in December 1972, 266 S-75 missiles were fired, resulting in

7200-576: The missile's improved performance. Therefore, when the Soviets introduced a new S-75, it was paired with an improved radar to match the missile's greater range and altitude. As previously mentioned, most nations with S-75s have matched parts from different versions or third-party missile systems, or they have added locally produced components. This has created a wide variety of S-75 systems which meet local needs. Peter Grushin Grushin graduated from Moscow Aviation Institute , where he participated in

7300-627: The next few years, the Taiwanese ROCAF would lose several aircraft to the S-75, both RB-57s and various drones . On May 1, 1960, Gary Powers' U-2 was shot down while flying over the testing site near Sverdlovsk . The first missile destroyed the U-2, and a further 13 were also fired, hitting a pursuing high-altitude MiG-19. The downing of the U-2 led to the U-2 Crisis of 1960. Additionally, Chinese S-75s downed five ROCAF-piloted U-2s. During

7400-479: The organization on 9 May 1955 was described as "a decisive turning point in the history of our continent" by Halvard Lange , Foreign Affairs Minister of Norway at the time. In November 1954, the USSR requested a new European Security Treaty, in order to make a final attempt to not have a remilitarized West Germany potentially opposed to the Soviet Union, with no success. On 14 May 1955, the USSR and seven other Eastern European countries "reaffirming their desire for

7500-656: The other azimuth (bearing) information. Regimental headquarters also include a Spoon Rest, as well as a Flat Face long-range C-band radar and Side Net height-finder. Information from these radars is sent from the regiment down to the battalion Spoon Rest operators to allow them to coordinate their searches. Earlier S-75 versions used a targeting radar known as Knife Rest, which was replaced in Soviet use, but can still be found in older installations. Upgrades to anti-aircraft missile systems typically combine improved missiles, radars, and operator consoles. Usually missile upgrades drive changes to other components to take advantage of

7600-686: The pact less than one month later. The pact began to unravel with the spread of the Revolutions of 1989 through the Eastern Bloc, beginning with the Solidarity movement in Poland, its electoral success in June 1989 and the Pan-European Picnic in August 1989. East Germany withdrew from the pact following German reunification in 1990. On 25 February 1991, at a meeting in Hungary, the pact

7700-771: The question of the participation of the USSR in the North Atlantic bloc", specifying that "the admittance of the USA into the General European Agreement should not be conditional on the three Western powers agreeing to the USSR joining the North Atlantic Pact". Again, all Soviet proposals, including the request to join NATO, were rejected by the UK, US, and French governments shortly after. Emblematic

7800-450: The radar several times to improve electronic countermeasure (ECM) resistance. They also introduced a passive guidance mode, whereby the tracking radar could lock onto the jamming signal itself and guide missiles directly towards the jamming source. This also meant the SAM site's tracking radar could be turned off, which prevented Shrikes from homing in on it. New tactics were developed to combat

7900-485: 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. Two days later President Johnson gave the order to attack known S-75 positions outside

8000-452: The region, such as Czechoslovakia and Poland. At the start of 1990, the Soviet foreign minister, Eduard Shevardnadze , implicitly confirmed the lack of Soviet influence over Ceaușescu's Romania. When asked whether it made sense for him to visit Romania less than two weeks after its revolution , Shevardnadze insisted that only by going in person to Romania could he figure out how to "restore Soviet influence". Romania requested and obtained

8100-566: 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. Between 1965 and 1966 the US developed countermeasures to the S-75 threat. The Navy soon had the AGM-45 Shrike anti-radiation air-to-surface missile in service and mounted their first offensive strike on

8200-446: The system was sold to most Warsaw Pact countries and was provided to China, North Korea, and eventually, North Vietnam. While the shooting down of Francis Gary Powers' U-2 in 1960 is the first publicized success for the S-75, the first aircraft shot down by the S-75 was a Taiwanese Martin RB-57D Canberra high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft . The aircraft was hit by a Chinese-operated S-75 site near Beijing on October 7, 1959. Over

8300-461: The treaty signatories were based upon mutual non-intervention in the internal affairs of the member countries, respect for national sovereignty , and political independence. However, de facto , the Pact was a direct reflection of the USSR's authoritarianism and undisputed domination over the Eastern Bloc , in the context of the so-called Soviet Empire , which was not comparable to that of

8400-688: 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

8500-501: The unified Germany (thus rendering the EDC obsolete). But Eden, Dulles, and Bidault opposed the proposal. One month later, the proposed European Treaty was rejected not only by supporters of the EDC, but also by Western opponents of the European Defence Community (like French Gaullist leader Gaston Palewski ) who perceived it as "unacceptable in its present form because it excludes the USA from participation in

8600-567: The usage of the term "independent" to describe Romania's relations with the Soviet Union, favoring "autonomy" instead on account of the country's continued membership within both the Comecon and the Warsaw Pact along with its commitment to socialism, this approach fails to explain why in July 1963 Romania blocked Mongolia 's accession to the Warsaw Pact, why in November 1963 Romania voted in favor of

8700-652: The wider public first became aware of the S-75 when the missile was shown at that year's May Day parade in Moscow . 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 130 mm (5.1 in) KS-30 and 100 mm (3.9 in) KS-19 . Between mid-1958 and 1964, US intelligence assets located more than 600 S-75 sites in

8800-434: The world as the "third force" of the Communist world. Romania's independence – achieved in the early 1960s through its freeing from its Soviet satellite status – was tolerated by Moscow because Romania was not bordering the Iron Curtain – being surrounded by socialist states – and because its ruling party was not going to abandon communism. Although certain historians such as Robert King and Dennis Deletant argue against

8900-463: Was "persuasively genuine". In truth, the Soviets were not beyond publicly aligning themselves with the West against the Romanians at times. The strategy behind the formation of the Warsaw Pact was driven by the desire of the Soviet Union to prevent Central and Eastern Europe being used as a base for its enemies. Its policy was also driven by ideological and geostrategic reasons. Ideologically,

9000-548: Was conceived, NATO officials labeled it a "cardboard castle". The USSR, fearing the restoration of German militarism in West Germany, had suggested in 1954 that it join NATO, but this was rejected by the US. The Soviet request to join NATO arose in the aftermath of the Berlin Conference of January–February 1954. Soviet foreign minister Molotov made proposals to have Germany reunified and elections for

9100-413: Was declared at an end by the defense and foreign ministers of the six remaining member states. The USSR itself was dissolved in December 1991 , although most of the former Soviet republics formed the Collective Security Treaty Organization shortly thereafter. In the following 20 years, the Warsaw Pact countries outside the USSR each joined NATO (East Germany through its reunification with West Germany; and

9200-500: Was deployed in the 1960 U-2 incident , when it shot down the U-2 of Francis Gary Powers overflying the Soviet Union on May 1, 1960. The system was also deployed in Cuba during the Cuban Missile Crisis , when it shot down another U-2 (piloted by Rudolf Anderson ) overflying Cuba on October 27, 1962, almost precipitating a nuclear war. North Vietnamese forces used the S-75 extensively during

9300-465: Was little inclination in Western capitals to explore this offer" from the USSR, while historian Rolf Steininger asserts that Adenauer's conviction that "neutralization means sovietization ", referring to the Soviet Union's policies towards Finland known as finlandization , was the main factor in the rejection of the Soviet proposals. Adenauer also feared that German unification might have resulted in

9400-466: Was not a member of the Warsaw Pact). The Romanian regime was largely impervious to Soviet political influence, and Ceaușescu was the only declared opponent of glasnost and perestroika . On account of the contentious relationship between Bucharest and Moscow, the West did not hold the Soviet Union responsible for the policies pursued by Bucharest. This was not the case for the other countries in

9500-555: Was the military complement to the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (Comecon), the economic organization for the Eastern Bloc states. Dominated by the Soviet Union, the Warsaw Pact was established as a balance of power or counterweight to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Western Bloc . There was no direct military confrontation between the two organizations; instead,

9600-440: Was the only non-Soviet Warsaw Pact member which was not obliged to militarily defend the Soviet Union in case of an armed attack. Bulgaria and Romania were the only Warsaw Pact members that did not have Soviet troops stationed on their soil. In December 1964, Romania became the only Warsaw Pact member (save Albania, which would leave the Pact altogether within 4 years) from which all Soviet advisors were withdrawn, including those in

9700-400: Was the position of British General Hastings Ismay , a fierce supporter of NATO expansion . He opposed the request to join NATO made by the USSR in 1954 saying that "the Soviet request to join NATO is like an unrepentant burglar requesting to join the police force". In April 1954, Adenauer made his first visit to the United States, meeting Nixon , Eisenhower , and Dulles . Ratification of

9800-476: Was to leave the area immediately, otherwise it would be destroyed by a bombing attack. Until December 1965, according to American data, eight S-75M systems were destroyed, although sometimes American aircraft bombed dummy positions equipped with decoy missiles made of bamboo . Soviet and Vietnamese calculations claimed the destruction of 31 aircraft; the Americans acknowledged the loss of 13 aircraft. According to

9900-474: Was too damaged to fly again. 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

10000-616: Was two-fold: the Political Consultative Committee handled political matters, and the Combined Command of Pact Armed Forces controlled the assigned multi-national forces, with headquarters in Warsaw , Poland. Although an apparently similar collective security alliance, the Warsaw Pact differed substantially from NATO. De jure , the eight-member countries of the Warsaw Pact pledged the mutual defense of any member who would be attacked; relations among

#626373