SA-2 Guideline Missile on Transport Trailer with ZIL-157 6X6 Army Truck

The V-75 (SA-2) surface-to-air missile system was designed for the defense of both fixed targets and field forces. The V-75 was designed to cope with the threat posed by small groups of aircraft rather than massed raids. Flexibility and mobility are its chief advantages over the SA-1. In contrast to the massive SA-1 sites, each of which is capable of defending only a limited sector around the target area, each SA-2 site is capable of 360� coverage. This flexibility is obtained at the expense of target handling capacity and rate of fire relative to the SA-1.

Although there are a variety of arrangement patterns, all sites consist of six launching positions -- usually revetted - deployed around a guidance radar and linked by service roads to facilitate loading. While the sites were permanent installations, all operating components of the system are mounted on wheeled vehicles and are capable of movement by road or raiL

The V-75 was the basic missile defense system for critical urban-industrial areas in the USSR, other than Moscow. The V-75 deployment began on a wide scale since early 1958, with sites located throughout the western part of the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries. Deployment patterns and levels of concentration varied according to the geography, size, and shape of the target area, and the Soviet estimate of the worth of individual targets. Between mid-1958 and 1964 more than 600 SA-2 sites were identified by US intelligence in the USSR, mostly in defense of population centers, industrial complexes, and government control centers.

Most SA-2 sites defended major centers of population and industry. SA-2 defenses were also deployed for the special protection of nuclear materials production and storage facilities. In addition, some key Soviet field forces and long range bomber bases were included in the SA-2 deployment pattern. The construction of sites and the training and activation of firing units was seasonal, with activity at a minimum during the winter months.

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