A - 35 anti - ballistic missile system The A - 35 anti - ballistic missile system was a Soviet military anti - ballistic missile ( ABM ) system deployed around Moscow to intercept enemy missiles targeting the city or its surrounding areas . The A - 35 was the only Soviet ABM system allowed under the 1972 Anti - Ballistic Missile Treaty . In development since the 1960s and in operation from 1971 until the 1990s , it featured the nuclear - tipped A350 exoatmospheric interceptor missile . The A - 35 was supported by the two Dunay radar s ( NATO : Cat House and Dog House ) and the Soviet early warning system . It was followed by the A - 135 in the early 1990s . A . The first Soviet anti - ballistic missile system was System A which was started at Test Range A at Sary Shagan test site in July 1956 . The testing of System A began in 1959 . System A used the V - 1000 missile to intercept enemy missiles . The first launch of the V - 1000 was 11 October 1957 and its first successful intercept was 4 March 1961 where it intercepted an R - 12 missile launched from Kapustin Yar . System A used the Dunay - 2 designed by V Sosulnikov at NII - 37 ( which later became NIIDAR ) as well as 3 homing radars and an ABM radar . The three homing radars ( called RTN ( NATO : Hen Egg ) ) were situated in an equilateral triangle with a length of . It could track missiles from a distance of about . The V - 1000 launch position and the ABM radar ( called RSV - PR ( NATO : Hen Nest ) ) were located together . The system used an M - 40 computer which could do 40 , 000 operations per second . A - 35 . The first work on A - 35 started in 1959 with the test model , called Aldan . The designer of the system was G . Kisunko of Soviet Experimental Design Bureau OKB - 30 . A new missile , the A - 350 , was to be designed by P . Grushin of OKB - 2 . Unlike the V - 1000 , the missile was to have a nuclear warhead . The design of the system called for it be to able to intercept several hostile incoming missiles simultaneously with a single warhead . It was also to intercept them outside the atmosphere . A - 35 was to have a main command centre , eight early warning radars with overlapping sectors , and 32 battle stations . Practical work to install the system started in 1965 but by 1967 only the test version at Sary Shagan was ready . There was an awareness that it had flaws , including an inability to handle MIRV s . In 1967 a Ministry of Defence commission decided that it should not be fully implemented . The eight radars were to be reduced to the two that had been started - the Dunay - 3 at Akulovo ( Kubinka ) ( also known by the NATO codename Dog House ) and the Dunay - 3U at Chekhov ( NATO name Cat House ) . In 1971 a version of A - 35 was tested with the main command centre , one radar and three battle stations . The command centre was located at the same site as the Dunay - 3 radar . In 1974 a version was tested with the main command with its 5E92 computer and four of the eight battle stations . Each battle station had two tracking radars , two battle management radars and sixteen A - 350 missiles . Only four of the eight battle stations were ever completed . Each battle station had 2 areas with 8 missiles each . Each area had three radars , which were called TRY ADD by NATO . A - 35M . The testing of A35 - M began in 1977 . It was a slightly modified version using A - 350R rather than A - 350Zh missiles . In 1971 work starting on the next generation of ABM systems - A135 . Building of the Don - 2N radar started in 1978 and the replacement system was placed on combat duty in 1995 . A 1985 note from the archives of Vitalii Leonidovich Kataev states that the A - 35M system was capable of intercepting " a single ballistic missile from some directions and up to 6 Pershing 2 - type missiles from the FRG " .