Surface - to - air missile A surface - to - air missile ( SAM ) , or ground - to - air missile ( GTAM ) , is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles . It is one type of antiaircraft system ; in modern armed forces missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated antiaircraft weapons , with antiaircraft gun s pushed into specialized roles . The first serious attempts at SAM development took place during World War II , although no operational systems were introduced . Further development through the 1940s and 50s led to the first operational systems being introduced by most major forces during the second half of the 1950s . Smaller systems , suitable for close - range work , evolved though the 1960s and 70s , to modern systems that are man - portable . Shipborne systems followed the evolution of land - based models , starting with long - range weapons and steadily evolving toward smaller designs to provide a layered defence that have pushed gun - based systems into the shortest - range roles . Historically notable systems include the American " Nike Ajax " , the first operational guided missile SAM system , and the Soviet Union ' s S - 75 Dvina , the most - produced SAM . Widely used modern examples include the " Patriot " and S - 300 wide - area systems , and short - range man - portable systems like the " Stinger " and " Strela - 3 " . History . The first idea for a " guided " surface to air missile was in 1925 , when a beam riding system was proposed whereby a rocket would follow a searchlight beam onto a target . A selenium cell was mounted on the tip of each of the rocket ' s four tail fins , with the cells facing backwards . When one selenium cell was no longer in the light beam , it would be steered in the opposite direction back into the beam . The first historical mention of an actual concept and design of a surface to air missile in which an actual drawing was presented , was by inventor Dr . Gustav Rasmus in 1931 , who proposed a design that would home on the sound of an aircraft ' s engines . World War II . During World War II a number of efforts were started to develop surface to air missile s as it was generally considered that flak was of little use against bomber s of ever - increasing performance . The lethal radius of a flak shell is fairly small , and the chance of delivering a " hit " is essentially a fixed percentage per round . In order to attack a target , guns fire continually while the aircraft are in range in order to launch as many shells as possible , increasing the chance that one of these will end up within the lethal range . Against the Boeing B - 17 , which operated just within the range of the numerous German eighty - eights , the flak guns had to fire an average of 2 , 805 rounds per bomber destroyed . Bombers flying at higher altitudes require larger guns and shells to reach them . This greatly increases the cost of the system , and ( generally ) slows the rate of fire . Faster aircraft mean they fly out of range more quickly , reducing the number of rounds fired against them . Against late - war designs like the Boeing B - 29 Superfortress or jet powered designs like the Arado Ar 234 , flak would be essentially useless . This potential was already obvious by 1942 , when Walther von Axthelm outlined the growing problems with flak defences that he predicted would soon be dealing with " aircraft speeds and flight altitudes [ that ] will gradually reach 625 mph and between 33 , 000 and 49 , 000 feet . German efforts . The first serious consideration of a SAM development project was a series of conversations that took place in Germany during 1941 . In February , Friederich Halder proposed a " flak rocket " concept which led Walter Dornberger to ask Wernher von Braun to prepare a study on a guided missile able to reach between 50 and 60 , 000 feet altitude . von Braun became convinced a better solution was a manned rocket interceptor , and said as much to the director of the T - Amt , Roluf Lucht , in July . The directors of the Luftwaffe flak arm were not interested in manned aircraft , and fighting broke out among the various teams . This served to delay serious consideration of a SAM for two years . Von Axthelm ' s concerns of 1942 led to serious consideration of the flak problem for the first time , and initial development programs for liquid - and solid - fuel rockets were part of the Flak Development Program of 1942 . By this point more serious studies by the Peenemünde team had been prepared , and several rocket designs had been proposed , including 1940 ' s Feuerlilie , and 1941 ' s " Wasserfall " and " Henschel Hs 117 " " Schmetterling " . However , none of these projects saw any real development until 1943 , when the first large - scale raids by the Allied air force s started . As the urgency of the problem grew , new designs were added to the mix , including " Enzian " and " Rheintochter " , as well as the unguided " Taifun " which was designed to be launched in waves . In general , these designs could be split into two groups . One set of designs would be boosted to altitude in front of the bombers and then flown towards them on a head - on approach at low speeds comparable to manned aircraft . These designs included the Feuerlilie , Schmetterling and Enzian . The second group were high - speed missiles , typically supersonic , that flew directly towards their targets from below . These included Wasserfall and Rheintochter . Both types used radio control for guidance , either by eye , or by comparing the returns of the missile and target on a single radar screen . Development of all these systems was carried out at the same time , and the war ended before any of them was ready for combat use . The infighting between various groups in the military also hurt development . Some extreme fighter designs , like the " Komet " and " Natter " , also overlapped with SAMs in their intended uses . Albert Speer was especially supportive of the missile development . In his opinion , had they been consistently developed from the start , the large scale bomber raids of 1944 would have been impossible . Allied efforts . The British developed unguided antiaircraft rockets ( operated under the name Z Battery ) close to the start of World War II , but the air superiority usually held by the Allies meant that the prospect of Nazi Germany ' s developing similar weapons was largely ignored . Things changed in 1943 when several allied ships were sunk by Henschel Hs 293 glide bomb s and Fritz X antiship missile s . These weapons were released from stand - off distances , with the bomber remaining outside the range of the ship ' s antiaircraft gun s , while the missiles were too small and fast to be attacked effectively . To combat this threat , the U . S . Navy launched Operation Bumblebee to develop a ramjet - powered missile to destroy launcher aircraft at long range . Initial performance goals were target intercept at a horizontal range of 10 miles and 30 , 000 feet altitude , with a 300 to 600 pound warhead for a 30 to 60 percent kill probability . This weapon did not emerge for 16 years , when it entered operation as the RIM - 8 Talos . Heavy shipping losses to " kamikaze " attacks during the Liberation of the Philippines and the Battle of Okinawa provided additional incentive for guided missile development . This led to the British " Fairey Stooge " and " Brakemine " efforts , and the U . S . Navy ' s SAM - N - 2 Lark . The " Lark " ran into considerable difficulty and it never entered operational use . The end of the war led to the British efforts being used strictly for research and development throughout their lifetime . Post - war deployments . In the immediate post - war era , a number of SAM developments were underway around the world , with several of these entering service in the early - and mid - 1950s . Coming to the same conclusions as the Germans regarding flak , the U . S . Army started its Project Nike developments in 1944 . Led by Bell Labs , the Nike Ajax was tested in production form in 1952 , becoming the first operational SAM system when it was activated in March 1954 . Concerns about Ajax ' s ability to deal with formations of aircraft led to greatly updated version of the same basic design entered service in 1958 as the Nike Hercules , the first nuclear - armed SAM . The U . S . Army Air Forces had also considered collision - course weapons ( like the German radio - controlled concepts ) and launched Project Thumper in 1946 . This was merged with another project , Wizard , and emerged as the CIM - 10 Bomarc in 1959 . The " Bomarc " had a range of over 500 km , but it was quite expensive and somewhat unreliable . Development of Oerlikon ' s RSD 58 started in 1947 , and was a closely held secret until 1955 . Early versions of the missile were available for purchase as early as 1952 , but never entered operational service . Several examples were purchased by several nations for testing and training purposes . The Soviet Union began development of a SAM system in earnest with the opening of the cold war . Josef Stalin was worried that Moscow would be subjected to American and British air raid s like those against Berlin , and in 1951 , he demanded that a missile system to counter a 1 , 000 bomber raid be built as quickly as possible . This led to the S - 25 Berkut system ( SA - 1 in NATO terminology ) , which was designed , developed and deployed in a rush program . Early units entered operational on 7 May 1955 , and the entire system ringing Moscow was completely activated by June 1956 . The S - 25 was a static system , but efforts were also put into a smaller design that would be much more mobile . This emerged in 1957 as the famous S - 75 Dvina ( SA - 2 ) , a portable system , with very high performance , that remains in operation into the 2000s . The Soviet Union remained at the forefront of SAM development throughout its history ; and Russia has followed suit . The early British developments with " Stooge " and " Brakemine " were successful , but further development was curtailed in the post - war era . These efforts picked up again with the opening of the cold war , following the " Stage Plan " of improving UK air defences with new radars , fighters and missiles . Two competing designs were proposed for " Stage 1 " , based on common radar and control units , and emerged as the RAF ' s Bristol Bloodhound in 1958 , and the Army ' s English Electric Thunderbird in 1959 . A third design followed the American " Bumblebee " efforts in terms of role and timeline , and entered service in 1961 as the Sea Slug . War in Vietnam . The Vietnam War was the first modern war in which guided antiaircraft missiles seriously challenged highly advanced supersonic jet aircraft . It would also be the first and only time that the latest and most modern air defense technologies of the Soviet Union and the most modern jet fighter plane s and bombers of the United States confronted each other in combat . Indeed , nearly 17 , 000 Soviet missile technicians , and operator / instructors would deploy to North Vietnam in 1965 to help defend Hanoi against American bomber s while North Vietnamese missilemen completed their six to nine months of SAM training in the Soviet Union . From 1965 through all of 1966 nearly the total of 48 U . S . jet aircraft shot down by SAMs over North Vietnam were downed by Soviet missilemen . During the course of the air defense of North Vietnam , one Russian SAM operator , Lieutenant Vadim Petrovich Shcherbakov , was credited with destroying 12 U . S . aircraft from 20 engagements . The Soviet Union supplied 7 , 658 SAMs to North Vietnam , and their defense forces conducted about 5 , 800 launches , usually in multiples of three . By war ' s end , about 205 aircraft had been lost to North Vietnamese surface - to - air missiles . The United States Armed Forces responded to this threat with increasingly effective means . Early efforts to directly attack the missiles sites as part of Operation Iron Hand were generally unsuccessful , but the introduction of Wild Weasel aircraft carrying " Shrike " missile s and the Standard ARM missile changed things dramatically . Feint and counterfeint followed as each side introduced new tactics to try to gain the upper hand . By the time of Operation Linebacker II in 1972 , the Americans had gained critical information about the performance and operations of the S - 75 , and used these missions as a way to demonstrate the capability of strategic bomber s to operate in a SAM saturated environment . Their first missions appeared to demonstrate the exact opposite , with the loss of three B - 52s and several others damaged in a single mission . Dramatic changes followed , and by the end of the series missions were carried out with additional chaff , ECM , Iron Hand and other changes dramatically changed the score – the North Vietnamese used up almost their entire stock of remaining missiles for the loss of two more B - 52s over a series of missions . Smaller , Faster . All of these early systems were " heavyweight " designs with limited mobility and requiring considerable set - up time ( and hassle ) . However , they were also increasingly effective . By the early 1960s , deployments of SAMs had rendered high - speed high - altitude flight in combat practically suicidal . The way to avoid this was to fly lower , below the line - of - sight of missile ' s radar systems . This demanded very different aircraft , like the F - 111 , TSR - 2 , and Panavia Tornado . As a result , SAMs evolved rapidly in the 1960s . As their targets were now being forced to fly lower due to the presence of the larger missiles , engagements would necessarily be at short ranges , and occur quickly . Shorter ranges meant the missiles could be much smaller , which aided them in terms of mobility . By the mid - 1960s almost all modern armed forces had short - range missiles mounted on trucks or light armour that could move with the armed forces they protected . Examples include the 2K12 Kub ( SA - 6 ) and 9K33 Osa ( SA - 8 ) , MIM - 23 Hawk , Rapier , Roland and Crotale . The introduction of sea - skimming missile s in the late 1960s and 1970s led to additional mid - and short - range designs for defence against these targets . The UK ' s Sea Cat was an early example that was designed specifically to replace the Bofors 40 mm gun on its mount , and became the first operational point - defense SAM . The American RIM - 7 Sea Sparrow quickly proliferated into a wide variety of designs fielded by most navies . Many of these are adapted from earlier mobile designs , but the special needs of the naval role has resulted in the continued existence of many custom missiles . MANPADS . As aircraft moved ever lower , and missile performance continued to improve , eventually it became possible to build an effective man - portable anti - aircraft missile . Known as MANPADS , the first example was a German WWII design known as the Fliegerfaust , but it never entered operation . The performance gap between this weapon and jet fighters of the post - war era was so great that such designs would not be effective . By the 1960s technology had closed this gap to a degree , leading to the introduction of the FIM - 43 Redeye , SA - 7 Grail and Blowpipe . Rapid improvement in the 1980s led to second generation designs like the FIM - 92 Stinger , 9K34 Strela - 3 ( SA - 14 ) and Starstreak of dramatically improved performance . By the 1990s to the 2010s , the Chinese had developed designs drawing influence from these , notably the FN - 6 . Through the evolution of SAMs , improvements were also being made to anti - aircraft artillery , but the missiles pushed them into ever shorter - range roles . By the 1980s , the only remaining widespread use was point - defense of airfields and ships , especially against cruise missile s . By the 1990s , even these roles were being encroached on by new MANPADS and similar short - range weapons like the RIM - 116 Rolling Airframe Missile . General information . Surface - to - air missiles are classified by their guidance , mobility , altitude and range . Mobility and range . Missiles able to fly longer distances are generally heavier , and therefore less mobile . This leads to three " natural " classes of SAM systems ; heavy long - range systems that are fixed or semi - mobile , medium - range vehicle - mounted systems that can fire on the move , and short - range man - portable air - defense system s ( MANPADS ) . Modern long - range weapons include the Patriot and S - 300 systems with effective ranges on the order of 150 km , and offer relatively good mobility and short unlimbering times . These compare with older systems with similar or less range , like the MIM - 14 Nike Hercules or S - 75 Dvina , which required fixed sites of considerable size . Much of this performance increase is due to improved rocket fuels and ever - smaller electronics in the guidance systems . Some very long - range systems remain , notably the Russian S - 400 , which has a range of 400 km . Medium - range designs like the Rapier and 2K12 Kub are specifically designed to be highly mobile with very fast , or zero , setup times . Many of these designs were mounted on armoured vehicles , allowing them to keep pace with mobile operations in a conventional war . Once a major group onto itself , medium - range designs have seen less development since the 1990s , as the focus has changed to unconventional warfare . MANPAD systems first developed in the 1960s and proved themselves in battle during the 1970s . MANPADs normally have ranges on the order of 3 km and are effective against attack helicopter s and aircraft making ground attacks . Against fixed wing aircraft they can be very effective , forcing them to fly outside the missile ' s envelope and thereby greatly reducing their effectiveness in ground - attack roles . MANPAD systems are sometimes used with vehicle mounts to improve maneuverability , like the Avenger system . These systems have encroached on the performance niche formerly filled by dedicated mid - range systems . Ship - based anti - aircraft missiles are also considered to be SAMs , although in practice it is expected they would be more widely used against sea skimming missiles rather than aircraft . Virtually all surface warships can be armed with SAMs , and naval SAMs are a necessity for all front - line surface warships . Some warship types specialize in anti - air warfare e . g . " Ticonderoga " - class cruisers equipped with the Aegis combat system or " Kirov " class cruisers with the S - 300PMU " Favorite " missile system . Guidance systems . SAM systems generally fall into two broad groups based on their guidance systems , those using radar and those using some other means . Longer range missiles generally use radar for early detection and guidance . Early SAM systems generally used tracking radars and fed guidance information to the missile using radio control concepts , referred to in the field as command guidance . Through the 1960s the semi - active radar homing ( SARH ) concept became much more common . In SARH , the reflections of the tracking radar ' s broadcasts are picked up by a receiver in the missile , which homes in on this system . SARH has the advantage of leaving most of the equipment on the ground , while also eliminating the need for the ground station to communicate with the missile after launch . Smaller missiles , especially MANPADs , generally use infrared homing guidance systems . These have the advantage of being " fire - and - forget " , once launched they will home on the target on their own with no external signals needed . In comparison , SARH systems require the tracking radar to illuminate the target , which may require them to be exposed through the attack . Systems combining an infrared seeker as a terminal guidance system on a missile using SARH are also known , like the MIM - 46 Mauler , but these are generally rare . Some newer short - range systems use a variation of the SARH technique , but based on laser illumination instead radar . These have the advantage of being small and very fast acting , as well as highly accurate . A few older designs use purely optical tracking and command guidance , perhaps the best known example of this is the British " Rapier " systen , which was initially an all - optical system with high accuracy . All SAM systems from the smallest to the largest generally include identified as friend or foe ( IFF ) systems to help identify the target before being engaged . IFF is not as important with MANPADs where the target is almost always visually identified prior to launch , but most modern MANPADs do include IFF . Target acquisition . Long - range systems generally use radar systems for target detection , and depending on the generation of system , may " hand off " to a separate tracking radar for attack . Short range systems are more likely to be entirely visual for detection . Hybrid systems are also common . The MIM - 72 Chaparral was fired optically , but normally operated with a short range early warning radar that displayed targets to the operator . This radar , the FAAR , was taken into the field with a ? and set up behind the lines . Information was passed to the " Chaparral " via a data link . The " Gama Goat " was only an experimental project of the U . S . Army .