S-75 Dvina

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 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. The S-75 system scored the first destruction of an enemy aircraft by a surface-to-air missile with the shootdown of a Taiwanese Martin RB-57D Canberra over China on 7 October 1959, which 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 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 would use the S-75 extensively during the Vietnam War against US air power, such as in the defence of Hanoi and Haiphong. The SAM threat would lead the United States to develop tactics to counter the S-75, such as the Wild Weasel aircraft armed with anti-radiation missiles. The system remains in limited service, with modified missiles being used by Russia as target missiles (RM; ракета мишень).