Russian SAMs Credit - © Mark Wade

Until the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian missiles were only known in public by the designations assigned by the Western military. Since the 1990, the true designations and technical details of these missiles have become known. Not unsurprisingly, a large number of missiles that never reached production of which the West was unaware have also been described. Here all of the previously-secret details of these four generations of weapons are presented. There were huge failed projects that reached the hardware stage - Dal and V-1000. There were plans for enormous equivalents to the American Bomarc and British Bloodhound missiles. All appear.

Sergei Korolev made the first Russian experiments with surface-to-air missiles before World War II, but his imprisonment ended further work. During the war the Red Army experimented with use of Katyusha rockets as anti-aircraft barrage rockets.

After victory in Europe, Stalin ordered that German surface-to-air missiles be put into production. Teams were established headed by Sinilshchikov (Wasserfall = R-101, R-108, R-109), Rashkov (Schmetterling = R-102, R-112, R-117), and Kostin (Taifun = R-103, R-110). Isayev led the team developing Soviet storable liquid engine technology from German originals.

Within four years missiles were in flight test but it was found that the Germans themselves had not solved the guidance problem. Finally Stalin ordered his secret police chief, Beria, to conduct a ruthless crash program to solve the problem of the defence of Moscow against American bombers. Beria's son worked in an existing missile design bureau, headed by Kuksenko. Beria established absolute priorities, and exploited Russian and German engineer-prisoners. The KB-1 bureau developed the S-25 air defence system in record time. In 1953, two years from the start, tests were being conducted against crewed copies of B-29 bombers and sites around Moscow had gone into operation. This first production Soviet missile was known to the West as the SA-1 Guild.

Following Stalin's death, surface-to-air missile development returned to more standard Soviet practice. Kuksenko and Beria's son were removed from their posts and competing design bureau were designated to design the next generation of missiles.

Design and development of most of the missiles used with air defence systems over the forty years that followed was accomplished by Pavel Dmitrevich Grushin (the organisation later known as Fakel MKB) Beginning with his 32B alternate to the S-25, Grushin developed a series of missiles that were the bane of American and Israeli pilots during the cold war - the S-75 (SA-2 and SA-N-2 Guideline), S-125 (SA-3 and SA-N-1 Goa), S-200 (SA-5 Gammon), S-300 (SA-10 and SA-N-6 Grumble), Shkval (SA-N-3 Goblet), Osa (SA-8 and SA-N-4 Gecko), Tor (SA-15 and SA-N-9 Gauntlet), S-300 (SA-10 and SA-N-6 Grumble). Grushin also provided the exo-atmospheric interceptor missiles for the V-1000, A-350 (ABM-1), and A-135 (ABM-3) anti-ballistic missile systems. At the time of Grushin's death on 29 November 1993, MKB Fakel had produced over 16 basic types of surface-to-air missile, 30 modernisations of these basic versions, and exported missiles to over 50 countries.

Other design teams that entered the missile design business over the years included those headed by:

• L V Lyulev (at OKB-8 GKAT, later EMKB Novator named for L V Lyulev), responsible for the unique Krug (SA-4 Gainful) ramjet-powered missile, and later the super-high acceleration missiles for the A-135, Buk (SA-11 Gadfly), and S-300V (SA-12 Giant/Gladiator) systems.
• Lavochkin (OKB-301), responsible for the missiles for the original S-25 system. The bureau got out of the surface-to-air missile field after the disastrous Dal program in the early 1960's
• A I Lyapin (KB-82 Factory 134 GKAT, later GosMKB Vympel) responsible for the unique Kub (SA-6 Gainful) missile

Different firms developed the overall anti-aircraft and anti-ballistic missile systems themselves, as opposed to the missiles that were part of those systems. This meant that air defence systems developed by different bureaux could use the same missile. Leading system designers were:

• The KB-1 design team responsible for the S-25 stayed in place, headed by Aleksandr Andreyevich Raspletin (1954-1967) and Boris V. Bunkin (1968-2000). Later known as Almaz TsKB, they were responsible for overall system design and integration for the S-75 (SA-2 Guideline), S-125 (SA-3 Goa), S-200 (SA-5 Gammon), and S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) missile systems for the Army and PVO Air Defence Forces.
• The Altair State Design bureau was responsible for all naval air defence systems development. They early on determined that only solid propellant rockets were suitable for naval use.
• V V Tikhomirov at OKB-11 GKAT (later NIIP Priborostroeniya named for V V Tikhomirov) developed the Kub (SA-6 Gainful) and Buk (SA-11 Gadfly) land-mobile missile systems
• V P Efremov at NII-20 GKRE (later NIEMI, later Antey NPO) entered the field with the Krug (SA-4 Gainful) ramjet-powered long-range surface-to-air missile. Antey later engineered the Osa single-vehicle air defence system, and then the new generation Tor (SA-15 Gauntlet) and S-300V(SA-12 Giant/Gladiator) systems.
• A group dedicated to anti-ballistic missile systems, known today as Vympel TsNPO, broke off from KB-1 in 1968.

Follow the links below to understand the history, development problems, and performance of each of these systems.

	17D	Prototype air-breathing surface-to-air missile, using air-augmented solid propellant....more.
	18D	Variant of the 18D air-breathing surface-to-air missile using a magnesium alloy in the fuel to double the initial launch thrust....more.
	22D	Prototype surface-to-air missile, using liquid-propellant ramjets in place of the air-augmented solid propellant of the 17D....more.
	A-135	Two-tier Russian anti-ballistic missile system for the defence of Moscow, with both endoatmospheric and exoatmospheric interceptor missiles. After protracted development,...more.
	A-35	First operational Soviet ABM system, going into limited operation around Moscow in 1972....more.
	Antey-2500	The Antey-2500 was a new generation of the S-300V, capable of shooting down re-entry vehicles of IRBMs of up to 2500 km range....more.
	Baranov SAM	First Soviet anti-aircraft barrage rocket, fired in limited numbers during siege of Leningrad, and downing two German aircraft....more.
	Dal	Trials of this long range surface-to-air missile were conducted in 1960-1963 but the project was cancelled after the system failed to down a single target. V-200...more.
	Krug	Ramjet-powered long-range surface-to-air missile, deployed by the Soviet Union and its allies....more.
	Kub	Mid-range integral rocket-ramjet Russian surface-to-air missile, widely deployed with Soviet forces and exported to 22 countries. The missile provided one of the...more.
	R-101	Post-war Russian version of German Wasserfall surface-to-air missile. Never put into production, but technology used for further surface-to-air and surface-to-surface missile developments in Russia....more.
	R-102	Post-war Russian version of German Schmetterling surface-to-air missile. 16 test flights made at Kapustin Yar between 18 October and 19 December 1949. Not put into...more.
	R-103	Post-war Russian version of German Taifun anti-aircraft barrage rocket. Developed and tested in 1947-1951 but abandoned in favour of the R-110....more.
	R-108	All-Russian second generation version of the R-101, itself a derivative of the German Wasserfall. Development began in May 1949 but the missile did not reach flight...more.
	R-109	Russian derivative of the German Wasserfall, an interim design between the R-101 and R-108. The missile did not reach flight test stage before it was cancellation in 1951....more.
	R-110	Larger caliber Russian version of the German Taifun anti-aircraft barrage rocket. Developed and tested in 1948-1956 and reached the initial production stage, but...more.
	R-112	Soviet surface-to-air missile design of 1948-1951. Propulsion and guidance based on that of the R-102 (copy of German Schmetterling) but with new aerodynamics....more.
	R-117	Soviet surface-to-air missile design of 1948-1950. Developed in competition with the R-112 (derrived from the German Schmetterling) but with new aerodynamics. Cancelled...more.
	R-500	MiG design for an equivalent to the US Bomarc extremely long-range surface-to-air missile. Never got beyond the design stage....more.
	S-200	Enormous surface-to-air missile developed by Grushin after the failure of the Dal project. Deployed in limited numbers and exported to countries in the mideast...more.
	S-225	Anti-ballistic missile system developed in parallel with the A-35, but not put into production....more.
	S-25	First surface-to-air missile deployed by the Soviet Union. Under a crash program ordered by Stalin, development began in 1951, first guided launch was in 1953,...more.
	S-300	Third generation family of surface-to-air missiles developed in the 1970's based on new principles. The same launch system could use either 5V55 or 48N6 series...more.
	S-300V	Mobile, multiple-target, universal integrated surface-to-air missile. The S-300V system can fire either of two versions of the containerised missiles loaded: long...more.
	S-400	Fourth generation surface-to-air missile system that replaced the Army's S-300V (SA-12) and the Air Defence Force's S-300PMU (SA-10). The system would feature twice...more.
	S-500	New anti-aircraft, anti-missile system design in competitive development with Antey's S-400 to produce a Russian equivalent to THAAD....more.
	S-75	Known in the west as the SA-2 Guideline, this weapon was responsible for the downing of more American aircraft than any missile in history. It was deployed worldwide...more.
	Taran	Anti-ballistic missile design that was part of the basic capability of the UR-100. Studied in 1962-1964 but abandoned....more.
	Tu-131	Tupolev design for a long-range air-breathing surface-to-air missile. Never got beyond the design stage....more.
	V-1000	First Soviet anti-ballistic missile system. Development began in 1956 and the system was tested at Sary Shagan 1960 to 1961. It was clear that enormous development...more.