MOSCOW. Dec 11 (Interfax-AVN) - The S-75 air defense missile system that entered the inventory 45 years ago was the beginning of a whole family of high-tech weapons for AD and space forces, Boris Bunkin, the scientific advisor of the Almaz Research-and- Production Association, told Interfax-Military News Agency Wednesday.
"This system was designed when it became necessary to ensure security of this country's aerial borders. It has repeatedly proven its high combat efficiency," Bunkin said.
"Much know-how was invested in S-75, for the creation of a mobile AD missile system required that the designers solve a lot of scientific problems," the advisor said.
He recalled that it was an S-75 missile that hit Francis Powers' U-2 spy plane over Urals May 1, 1960.
Since 1959, S-75's export-oriented version Desna has been delivered to many foreign armies. In the 1960s and 1970s, the system was engaged in the Vietnam, Arab-Israeli, and Indian- Pakistani wars, as well as in Syria, Egypt, Libya, Angola, and other trouble spots.
Almaz is a world-famous designer of missile systems. Today the Favorit and Triumf missile systems with prospective combined air defense and nonstrategic missile defense capability are being developed.