| S-25 Berkut (NATO reporting name: SA-1 Guild) | |
|---|---|
 S-25 missile | |
| Type | Strategic SAM system |
| Place of origin | Soviet Union |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1955–1982 |
| Used by | Soviet Union |
| Wars | Cold War |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Lavochkin OKB |
| Designed | 1950 |
| No. built | more than 11 000[1] |
| Specifications | |
| Width | 0.71 m (2.3 ft) |
| Height | 12.00 m (39.37 ft) |
The S-25 Berkut (Russian: С-25 «Беркут»; "Berkut" means golden eagle in English) is a surface-to-air guided missile, the first operational SAM system in the Soviet Union. In the early 1950s it was tested at Kapustin Yar. It was deployed in several rings around Moscow starting in 1955 and became combat ready in June 1956. The system failed, however, to detect, track, and intercept the only overflight of the Soviet capital Moscow by a U-2 reconnaissance plane on July 5, 1956.[2][3] It was used only defensively at Moscow; the more mobile S-75 (SA-2 Guideline) would be used in almost all other locations. Several improvements were introduced over its long service lifetime, and the system was finally replaced by the S-300P in 1982.
Its NATO reporting name is SA-1 Guild. S-25 is short for Systema 25, referring to the entire system of missiles, radars, and launchers. Portions of the system include the V-300 missile, R-113 and B-200 radars, and A-11/A-12 antennas for the B-200.
- ^ "Сверхзвуковые ракеты-мишени". Retrieved 14 November 2014.
- ^ Gruntman, Mike (2015). Intercept 1961 : the birth of Soviet missile defense (1st ed.). Reston, VA. ISBN 9781624103490.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Gruntman, Mike (April 2016). "Intercept 1961: From Air Defense SA-1 to Missile Defense System A [Scanning our Past]". Proceedings of the IEEE. 104 (4): 883–890. doi:10.1109/JPROC.2016.2537023. ISSN 1558-2256.