And I've finished reading it. The book didn't have much technical information - it was clearly written for people who already had an idea about SAM systems. Aside of the history of the FlaRaketentruppen in East Germany it most of the book is filled by anecdotes from air defense soldiers. To be honest, many of them are tinted by nostalgia but they also made me laugh and gave an interesting view of the minds of soldiers int a warsaw pact state.

Maybe an interesting tidbit I got from it is that the East German soldiers don't have a high opinion of the western "Nike" system. True, the range was impressive and all other technical abilities were at the height of the time. While it still took two to three hours to get a Dvina or Volhov "Raketenkomplex" on the road, the Nike required an incredible amount of space to be deployed and was essentially an immobile system that would have limited its tactical use in an actual war severely.

There's a story in there about a soviet air defense unit claiming to be able to tear down their S-75 in half an hour which greatly impressed the Germans, but they didn't mention how long it takes takes to set up that (presumably) mess afterwards.


The single S-300 "Raketenkomplex" (read: Battalion) they had was considered "sensitive equipment" and given back to Russia.
All the other eastbloc SAM systems were sold or scrapped. The East German soldiers who wrote chapters for the book are still quite hurt about that. All their training instantly became worthless, just as they had got the S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) that introduced truly mobile air defense tactics.

Just never learn the truth of how long to take to tear down a system by Zoltan Dani's unit in real life threatening situation...
... or in Vietnam.





Just mind the coordinates...

That struck me as a bit long, too, but you know how the Germans are when it comes to following regulations.
At least you could be sure to find every last cable in its spot.

From where they buy/take this??? Bet it is an ex-USSR republic...

I had to look it up on Wikipedia, apparently Croatia's S-300 "vanished" in 2004.

Croatia never received S-300PMU system.

(They always faced the Russian supported Serbs.)

S-300PMU was exported:




S-300PMU (SA-10B)
1989; 1 battery GDR, 1 battery Bulgaria (You can find this unit on guard, east of Sofia, beside Klisura)
1990; 1 battery Czechoslovakia (Currently with Slovakia, beside Aleksince)
1993; 4 battery China (3 batteries around Beijing, 1 battery beside Jiangxi)

S-300PMU-1 (SA-20A)
1995/96; 4 batteries China (3 batteries around Sanghai, 1 battery beside Beijing)
1999; 2 batteries Greece (Cyprus; beside Ineia and Prodromos)



You know, that we Hungarians are quite jealous about these units...
... two Hungarian batteries were trained, sites were allocated, just the equipment was never arrived.

Hungarians are good wariors (proved in history) and they deserve good weaponary... Pity don't get those SA-10's...

I think Nike is not good over, say 80 km (as other command guided missiles are...). It's a bit better (because of his HUGE warhead), than "Volkhov" or "Krug", but generaly not so great.
I like his missile profile (a bit similar to "VEGA", and his non-liquid fueled missiles. It is an huge advantage against S-200 and S-2.



Look it from the point of impact to the SAM site, like Hpasp showed, it could be different view.

But they did acquire some S-300 TEL's and few missiles from somewhere? Or it was just one of those inflatable S-300's?
If tech was transfered to US, how much could they learn from it.



Sa-8 in RAF Spadeadam EW range at UK;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/imshafted/718413688/in/photostream/
Also they did put SA-8 in Waddington air show. Maybe i should write to them and ask premission to travel and walk in to take "few" pictures. Then i could finish my SA-8.

ooo montieris .... i love sa-8 system... for short range target... this is the best!!!!

i wish this sam could be included in sam simulator at one day ... i hope