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In the immediate post- WWII period the Soviet air defence doctrine had placed a heavy emphasis on national air defence against nuclear-armed bombers. Numerous long-range, high-altitude SAM systems were developed to counter this threat, but in the meanwhile relatively little development took place in mobile battlefield air defences able to move with army maneuver elements and defend them against low-altitude air attack in a conventional war.
The Korean war showed that the era of conventional war was far from over, and the Soviet Union responded with a 10-year plan that called for several mobile battlefield air defence systems to create a multi-tier system to cover all altitude ranges. The new doctrine listed 5 new requirements:
Both Strela-1 and Strela-2 were initially intended to be man-portable systems. However, as the Strela-2 proved to be considerably smaller and lighter system, the specifications of the Strela-1 were changed, calling for a heavier vehicle-mounted missile of higher performance to support the ZSU-23-4 gun systems in the regimental air defence role.
As development began in the Turopov OKB (later changed to Kolomna), the detailed information of the US FIM-43 Redeye became available. While it was by no means a simple reverse-engineered copy, in many ways the Strela design borrowed heavily from the Redeye, with which it was developed simultaneously. Development was protracted and many difficulties were face in designing sufficiently small seeker head and rocket. Eventually the designers had to settle for a simpler seeker head than that of the Redeye.
The initial version 9K32 Strela-2 (NATO: SA-7a, missile round 9M32) finally entered service in 1968, 5 years late of schedule.
The Strela-2 was quickly followed by the slightly improved version Strela-2M (NATO: SA-7b, missile round 9M32M) in 1970, and then a more radical improvement, the 9K36 Strela-3 (NATO: (NATO: SA-14, missile round 9M36).
At least some technical documentation on the Strela-1 system is known to have been passed to the CIA by the Polish Colonel Ryszard_KuklinskiRyszard Jerzy Kuklinski ( June 13, 1930 February 11, 2004) was a Polish-born colonel and " Cold War" masterspy, who passed top secret Warsaw Pact documents to the CIA between years 1971 and 1981. He died of stroke at the age of 74 in a Tampa, Florida, hos.
See also: anti-aircraftAmerican troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft or air defense is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. Various guns and cannons have been used in this role since the first military aircraft, anti-aircraft missile, missileA missile (British English: "miss isle"; U. English: "missl") is, in general, a projectile—that is, something thrown or otherwise propelled. Missiles can range from a rock thrown from a slingshot, through a crossbow or ballista bolt, to a Minuteman III in, List of missilesBelow is a list of (links to pages on) missiles sorted alphabetically by country of origin. See also the list of rockets. Types of missiles: Air-to-air missile Anti-ballistic missile Anti-satellite weapon Anti-ship missile Anti-tank guided missile Ballist
Surface-to-air missiles