.Panama Seizes North Korean Ship.

[happyslug]

32. SA-2? The missle that shot down Gary Powers in 1960?

NATO called in the SA-2, the Actual name was S-75 Dvina:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S-75_Dvina

http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/factsheets/factsheet.asp?id=334

Sorry, it is of the same age and technology as American Nike Missles (Nike Hercules was introduced in 1959 and withdrawn in 1988, SA-2 is similar to the Older Nike-Ajax, which was introduced in 1954 and replaced by the Nike Hercules starting in 1959).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-14_Nike-Hercules


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-3_Nike_Ajax#After_Ajax

The SA-2 was considered a very good high attitude anti aircraft missile. It forced the Israelis in the 1973 Yom Kipper war to fly low, thus opening them up to short range AA fire from anything from Ak-47s up to 23mm AA cannon. Above in the Wikipedia site it states the US "solved" the problem of the SA-2 during the Attacks on Hanoi in 1972. It does not say how (US tactics on Soviet Missiles is similar to what it did in Desert Storm, hit the radars sites early, in Desert storms this was done by Apache Helicopters, in Vietnam the US apparently bombed the SA-2 sites with fighter bombers coming in low below the SA-2's radar destroying them before the B-52s came within range, hitting both the launch sites and any alternative launch sites, and kept them being bombed till the B-52s had drop their load and gone home, an expensive but effective tactic).

The SA-2 is a decent missile in today's service, no longer first string as it was when it shot down Gary Power in 1960, but an adequate defensive weapon.

As to the MIG-21, another relic of the 1950s that in well trained capable hands can still be a threat, but again not first string.