{"id":29615776,"date":"2026-10-26T10:30:53","date_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/how-surface-to-air-missile-works-sam-guidance-explained\/"},"modified":"2026-10-26T10:31:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-26T09:31:10","slug":"how-surface-to-air-missile-works-sam-guidance-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/how-surface-to-air-missile-works-sam-guidance-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Surface-to-Air Missile Explained: How a SAM Hunts an Aircraft"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.et_pb_title_container h1.entry-title { padding-top: 40px !important; }<\/style>\r\n<!-- mfsh:top -->\r\n\r\n<style>\r\n.mfsh-trigger{display:inline-flex;align-items:center;gap:10px;height:44px;padding:0 18px;margin:0 0 26px;border:2px solid 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The aircraft lurched forward, there was a bright orange flash, and the right wing began to droop. The <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/u-2-dragon-lady\/\">U-2<\/a> had been found, tracked and hit by something that never left the ground.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The weapon was a Soviet S-75, better known in the West as the SA-2 Guideline, and it changed air warfare for good. Altitude, the old protection of the reconnaissance pilot and the strategic bomber, no longer guaranteed safety. For the next six decades, the surface-to-air missile, or SAM, would decide how and where air forces could fly.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The secret of a SAM is that it is not really a missile. It is a system: eyes, a brain, a launcher and a missile, all of which have to work together in the few minutes, or seconds, between first contact and impact.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f4f6f9;border:1px solid #e2e7ee;padding:18px 22px;margin:22px 0 26px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:700;color:#0d1117\">Quick Facts<\/p><ul style=\"margin:0;padding-left:18px\"><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>What it is:<\/strong> A missile system launched from the ground or a ship to destroy aircraft or missiles<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Main parts:<\/strong> Search radar, fire-control (tracking) radar, launcher, missile, plus IFF<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>First operational:<\/strong> US Nike Ajax, activated in March 1954<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Most produced:<\/strong> Soviet S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline), first deployed 1957<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Guidance families:<\/strong> Command (SA-2), semi-active radar homing (Hawk, SA-6), track-via-missile (Patriot), active radar (PAC-3), infrared homing (Stinger)<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Warhead:<\/strong> Usually blast-fragmentation with a proximity fuze; PAC-3 uses hit-to-kill<\/li><li style=\"margin:4px 0\"><strong>Famous kills:<\/strong> Powers&rsquo; U-2, 1 May 1960; Anderson&rsquo;s U-2 over Cuba, 27 October 1962<\/li><\/ul><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The kill chain: from search to launch<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>It starts with a search radar. On a classic SA-2 site, an early-warning radar the West called Spoon Rest swept the sky for anything coming. Its job was not precision but awareness: to spot an aircraft early and hand it over to the radar that would actually run the engagement. Modern systems also query the contact with IFF to check that it is not a friendly aircraft.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sam-sa-2-guideline-missile-launcher-hanoi-museum.jpg\" alt=\"An S-75 Dvina SA-2 Guideline surface-to-air missile on its launcher at the Vietnamese Air Force and Air Defence museum in Hanoi\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An SA-2 Guideline on its launcher at the Museum of the Vietnamese Air Force and Air Defence Forces in Hanoi. North Vietnam received the system in 1965. Photo: kitmasterbloke \/ Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>That second radar is the fire-control, or tracking, radar. On the SA-2 it was the Fan Song, which could follow up to four targets and guide up to three missiles against one of them. A typical North Vietnamese SA-2 site had six missiles on launchers around it, plus control and support vans. The launchers are the muscle; the tracking radar and its computers are the brain.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sam-sa-2-fan-song-fire-control-radar-egypt.jpg\" alt=\"An Egyptian Fan Song E fire control radar of the SA-2 system in the desert\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">An Egyptian Fan Song E, the SA-2&rsquo;s fire-control and guidance radar, in operation during Exercise Bright Star &rsquo;85. Photo: Sgt. Stan Tarver, US DoD \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>Then comes the shot. The SA-2&rsquo;s solid-fuel booster burned for about six seconds and fell away, and the missile did not steer during that phase. Only once the second stage was running did guidance take over for the rest of the flight to the target.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Five ways to steer a missile<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>The heart of any SAM is how it is guided, and the history of air defence can be told through five families. The oldest is command guidance, used by the SA-2. The ground radar tracks both the target and the missile, a computer works out where the two will meet, and steering commands are sent to the missile by radio. The missile itself is fairly simple; the intelligence stays on the ground.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Through the 1960s, semi-active radar homing became common. Here the ground radar &ldquo;illuminates&rdquo; the target, and a receiver in the missile&rsquo;s nose homes on the reflected energy. The American MIM-23 Hawk, in US Army service from 1959, and the Soviet 2K12 Kub, the SA-6, both used continuous-wave illuminators this way. The catch is that the radar must keep shining on the target until impact, which keeps the site exposed. It is the same principle that guided air-to-air missiles like the Sparrow, explained in our piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/how-radar-guided-missile-works-semi-active-active-sparrow-amraam\/\">radar-guided missiles<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/uX7m-MnjsKA\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">Binkov&rsquo;s Battlegrounds walks through how an SA-2 battery fitted together, from its radars to its missiles.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The Patriot introduced a hybrid called track-via-missile. The ground radar illuminates the target, but the missile&rsquo;s own receiver picks up the reflections and relays what it sees back down to the ground. Computers in the engagement control station combine that view with the radar&rsquo;s and send steering commands back up. The missile&rsquo;s close-up perspective improves accuracy while the heavy processing stays on the ground.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Newer interceptors go a step further with active radar homing. The PAC-3 missile carries its own Ka-band radar seeker, so in the final phase it can drop the link to the ground and find the target by itself. It is accurate enough to destroy its target by direct impact, a method known as hit-to-kill.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/qihgWzyYqXo\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">The Wall Street Journal explains how a Patriot battery detects, tracks and engages incoming targets.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The fifth family needs no radar at all. Shoulder-launched MANPADS such as the FIM-92 Stinger use infrared homing, locking on to the heat of an aircraft. They are fire-and-forget: once launched, the missile guides itself, and the target receives no radar warning. How those seekers work, and how flares try to fool them, is the subject of our explainer on <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/how-heat-seeking-missile-infrared-seeker-works\/\">heat-seeking missiles<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sam-fim-92-stinger-manpads-infrared-launch.jpg\" alt=\"A US Army soldier fires an FIM-92 Stinger shoulder-launched surface-to-air missile at a target drone in the desert\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A US Army soldier of the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment fires an FIM-92 Stinger at a target drone in 2012. The Stinger is an infrared-homing, fire-and-forget MANPADS. Photo: Casey Slusser, US Army \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">Close is good enough<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>A SAM does not usually need to hit its target. Most carry a blast-fragmentation warhead set off by a proximity fuze, which senses when the missile is passing close to the aircraft and detonates, spraying fragments into it. The SA-2 combined proximity, contact and command fusing. The idea traces back to the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/proximity-fuze-vt-fuze-wwii-secret-weapon-tuve-apl\/\">proximity fuze of the Second World War<\/a>, which first made anti-aircraft shells lethal without a direct hit.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>Powers learned exactly what that means. When he was later shown the wreckage of his U-2 by his Soviet interrogators, he concluded that the aircraft had not taken a direct hit but had been disabled by a near-miss.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;After the SAM-2 missile exploded near the fragile tail section of his aircraft, everything appeared to be in order until the plane nosed down and didn&rsquo;t respond to the controls.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Francis Gary Powers Jr.<\/strong> &mdash; Son of the U-2 pilot, writing in American Heritage<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">How SAMs reshaped the air war<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Powers was not the SA-2&rsquo;s first victim. That was a Taiwanese RB-57D, a high-altitude version of the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/b-57-canberra\/\">B-57 Canberra<\/a>, shot down near Beijing in October 1959. In October 1962, another SA-2 shot down Major Rudolf Anderson&rsquo;s U-2 over Cuba at the height of the missile crisis. By the early 1960s, flying high and fast over defended territory had become close to suicidal, and air forces turned to flying low, below the radars&rsquo; line of sight.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>North Vietnam began receiving SA-2s soon after Operation Rolling Thunder began in 1965. On 24 July 1965, an SA-2 shot down a <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/united-states-air-force\/\">US Air Force<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-4-phantom-ii\/\">F-4C Phantom<\/a>, the first of 110 USAF aircraft the National Museum of the US Air Force lists as lost to SAMs in Southeast Asia. The response was a whole new trade: Wild Weasel crews in two-seat <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/f-105-thunderchief\/\">F-105s<\/a> hunted the radar sites, and fighters were fitted with <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/radar-warning-receiver-rwr-explained\/\">radar warning receivers<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #d32f2f;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;At times over Hanoi, the scope would be alive with strobes, and the headset chirped like mad.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Ralph Wetterhahn<\/strong> &mdash; Former USAF F-4C pilot, on radar warning gear over North Vietnam (Air &amp; Space\/Smithsonian, 2014)<\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<p>The 1973 Yom Kippur War showed what the next generation could do. Egyptian and Syrian SA-6 batteries were mobile, tracked and used a continuous-wave guidance radar that the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/air-forces\/israeli-air-force\/\">Israeli Air Force<\/a>&rsquo;s radar warning receivers did not pick up. Together with older SAMs and mobile anti-aircraft guns, they took a heavy toll on <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/aircraft\/a-4-skyhawk\/\">A-4 Skyhawks<\/a> and Phantoms, and the Israeli air-defence suppression operations planned for both fronts, Tagar and Dugman, were aborted or failed at high cost. We told that story in <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-tagar-dugman-5-1973-israeli-air-force-sam-golan-suez\/\">Operation Tagar and Dugman 5<\/a>.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\" style=\"margin:0 0 24px;width:100%\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" width=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/10\/sam-2k12-kub-sa-6-straight-flush-radar-launcher.jpg\" alt=\"A 2K12 Kub SA-6 Straight Flush radar vehicle with a missile launcher behind it, reflected in a puddle in Alaska\" style=\"width:100%;height:auto;max-width:100%;display:block\"><figcaption style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;margin-top:6px;font-style:italic\">A Soviet-built 2K12 Kub (SA-6) Straight Flush radar vehicle and launcher used as a threat simulator during Red Flag-Alaska 11-1 in 2011. The radar&rsquo;s continuous-wave illuminator guided the missile. Photo: Laura Goodgame, US Air Force \/ public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"background:#f8f9fa;border-left:4px solid #1565c0;padding:20px 22px;margin:18px 0 24px;font-size:16px;line-height:1.7\"><div><em>&ldquo;The missiles are an impregnable umbrella that our air force can&rsquo;t overcome.&rdquo;<\/em><div style=\"margin-top:10px;font-size:14px;color:#555\"><strong>Moshe Dayan<\/strong> &mdash; Israeli defence minister, October 1973, as quoted in Emanuel Sakal&rsquo;s <em>Soldier in the Sinai<\/em><\/div><\/div><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n<h2 style=\"padding-top:22px\">The duel that never ends<\/h2>\r\n\r\n<p>Every SAM generation has bred a countermeasure, and every countermeasure a new SAM. Warning receivers tell pilots when a fire-control radar has them. Jammers and chaff confuse the radars, and towed and expendable decoys such as the ALE-50 and BriteCloud give a radar-guided missile something more attractive to chase, as our piece on <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/towed-expendable-decoys-ale-50-ale-55-britecloud-home-on-jam\/\">towed decoys<\/a> explains. Even the SA-6 lost its edge once captured examples allowed effective countermeasures to be developed.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n<div style=\"position:relative;padding-bottom:56.25%;height:0;overflow:hidden;margin:24px 0 8px\"><iframe class=\"skip-lazy\" data-no-lazy=\"1\" loading=\"eager\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AJwiL77nIhE\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;border:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\r\n\r\n<p style=\"font-size:13px;color:#777;text-align:center;font-style:italic;margin:0 0 24px\">US Army footage of a Stinger live-fire exercise during Super Garuda Shield.<\/p>\r\n\r\n<p>The basic recipe, though, has hardly changed since the Germans tried and failed to get the <a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/henschel-hs-117-schmetterling-surface-to-air-missile-ww2\/\">Henschel Hs 117 Schmetterling<\/a> into service before the end of the Second World War. Find the aircraft. Track it. Steer something faster towards it and burst it close enough. Since one missile ended Powers&rsquo; flight in 1960, no pilot over defended ground has been able to forget that sequence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<p><em>Sources: Wikipedia (Surface-to-air missile; S-75 Dvina; 2K12 Kub; MIM-23 Hawk; MIM-104 Patriot), National Museum of the US Air Force, CIA, CSIS Missile Threat, Designation-Systems.net, American Heritage, Air &amp; Space\/Smithsonian, Michigan War Studies Review<\/em><\/p>\r\n<!-- mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n<button type=\"button\" class=\"mfsh-trigger mfsh-bottom\" data-mfsh-placement=\"bottom\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\"><svg><use href=\"#mfsh-i-share\"\/><\/svg>Share this story<\/button>\r\n\r\n<!-- \/mfsh:bottom -->\r\n\r\n\r\n<style>.mfq{margin:34px 0 8px}.mfq h2{font:26px\/1.3 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117;padding-top:22px;margin:0 0 6px}.mfq .qa details{border-top:1px solid #5C91FF;margin:0;padding:0}.mfq .qa details:last-of-type{border-bottom:1px solid #e2e7ee}.mfq .qa summary{cursor:pointer;list-style:none;display:flex;justify-content:space-between;align-items:center;gap:16px;padding:22px 26px;font:18px\/1.7 \"Gilroy semiBold\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#0d1117}.mfq .qa summary::-webkit-details-marker{display:none}.mfq .qa summary::after{content:\"+\";font:24px Helvetica,sans-serif;color:#3568e0;flex:0 0 auto}.mfq .qa details[open] summary::after{content:\"\\2013\"}.mfq .qa details:hover summary{color:#3568e0}.mfq .qa .a{font:16px\/1.7 \"Gilroy regular\",Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif;color:#454e5e;padding:0 26px 24px}.mfq .qa .a a{color:#3568e0}@media(max-width:680px){.mfq .qa summary{padding:18px 14px;font-size:17px}.mfq .qa .a{padding:0 14px 20px}}<\/style>\r\n\r\n\r\n<section class=\"mfq\"><h2>Frequently Asked Questions<\/h2><div class=\"qa\"><details open><summary>How does a surface-to-air missile work?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">A surface-to-air missile works as a system. A search radar detects an aircraft and hands it to a fire-control radar that tracks it precisely. The missile is launched and steered towards a predicted meeting point, either by commands from the ground or by its own seeker, and a proximity fuze usually detonates the warhead close to the target.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What are the main types of SAM guidance?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Surface-to-air missiles use five main guidance families. Command guidance steers the missile by radio from the ground, as on the SA-2. Semi-active radar homing follows reflections from a ground radar, as on the Hawk and SA-6. Track-via-missile is Patriot&rsquo;s hybrid. Active radar seekers, as on PAC-3, and infrared homing, as on the Stinger, let the missile find the target itself.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Does a SAM have to hit the aircraft?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Most surface-to-air missiles do not need a direct hit. They carry a blast-fragmentation warhead triggered by a proximity fuze when the missile passes close to the aircraft. The SA-2 combined proximity, contact and command fusing, and Francis Gary Powers concluded his U-2 was disabled by a near-miss. Newer interceptors such as PAC-3 are designed to hit their targets directly.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>What missile shot down Francis Gary Powers?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">Francis Gary Powers&rsquo; U-2 was shot down on 1 May 1960 by a Soviet S-75 Dvina, known to NATO as the SA-2 Guideline, near Sverdlovsk. The same type downed Major Rudolf Anderson&rsquo;s U-2 over Cuba in October 1962 and became the main SAM threat to US aircraft over North Vietnam.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>How many US aircraft did SAMs shoot down in Vietnam?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The National Museum of the US Air Force says an F-4C shot down by an SA-2 on 24 July 1965 was the first of 110 USAF aircraft lost to surface-to-air missiles in Southeast Asia. That figure covers the US Air Force only; US Navy and Marine Corps losses are counted separately.<\/div><\/details><details><summary>Why was the SA-6 so effective in the 1973 Yom Kippur War?<\/summary><div class=\"a\">The SA-6, or 2K12 Kub, was mobile, mounted on tracked vehicles, and used a continuous-wave guidance radar that Israeli radar warning receivers did not detect. With older SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, Egyptian and Syrian SA-6 batteries took a heavy toll on Israeli A-4 Skyhawks and F-4 Phantoms in the opening days of the war.<\/div><\/details><\/div><\/section>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@type\":\"FAQPage\",\"mainEntity\":[{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How does a surface-to-air missile work?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"A surface-to-air missile works as a system. A search radar detects an aircraft and hands it to a fire-control radar that tracks it precisely. The missile is launched and steered towards a predicted meeting point, either by commands from the ground or by its own seeker, and a proximity fuze usually detonates the warhead close to the target.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What are the main types of SAM guidance?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Surface-to-air missiles use five main guidance families. Command guidance steers the missile by radio from the ground, as on the SA-2. Semi-active radar homing follows reflections from a ground radar, as on the Hawk and SA-6. Track-via-missile is Patriot\u2019s hybrid. Active radar seekers, as on PAC-3, and infrared homing, as on the Stinger, let the missile find the target itself.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"Does a SAM have to hit the aircraft?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Most surface-to-air missiles do not need a direct hit. They carry a blast-fragmentation warhead triggered by a proximity fuze when the missile passes close to the aircraft. The SA-2 combined proximity, contact and command fusing, and Francis Gary Powers concluded his U-2 was disabled by a near-miss. Newer interceptors such as PAC-3 are designed to hit their targets directly.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"What missile shot down Francis Gary Powers?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"Francis Gary Powers\u2019 U-2 was shot down on 1 May 1960 by a Soviet S-75 Dvina, known to NATO as the SA-2 Guideline, near Sverdlovsk. The same type downed Major Rudolf Anderson\u2019s U-2 over Cuba in October 1962 and became the main SAM threat to US aircraft over North Vietnam.\"}},{\"@type\":\"Question\",\"name\":\"How many US aircraft did SAMs shoot down in Vietnam?\",\"acceptedAnswer\":{\"@type\":\"Answer\",\"text\":\"The National Museum of the US Air Force says an F-4C shot down by an SA-2 on 24 July 1965 was the first of 110 USAF aircraft lost to surface-to-air missiles in Southeast Asia. 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With older SAMs and anti-aircraft guns, Egyptian and Syrian SA-6 batteries took a heavy toll on Israeli A-4 Skyhawks and F-4 Phantoms in the opening days of the war.\"}}]}<\/script><div style=\"background:#f0f4ff;border-left:4px solid #5C91FF;padding:16px 20px;margin:32px 0 8px\"><p style=\"margin:0 0 8px;font-weight:600;color:#333\">Related Posts<\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/operation-tagar-dugman-5-1973-israeli-air-force-sam-golan-suez\/\">Operation Tagar and Dugman 5: Israel&rsquo;s Worst Day Against the SAMs<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/francis-gary-powers-u-2-shot-down-1960-sverdlovsk-glienicke-bridge\/\">Francis Gary Powers: The U-2 Shot Down Over the Soviet Union<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/radar-warning-receiver-rwr-explained\/\">Radar Warning Receivers: How a Fighter Knows It Is Being Hunted<\/a><\/p><p style=\"margin:4px 0\"><a href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/towed-expendable-decoys-ale-50-ale-55-britecloud-home-on-jam\/\">AN\/ALE-50 and BriteCloud: How Towed and Expendable Decoys Work<\/a><\/p><\/div>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How a surface-to-air missile works: the radars, launchers and five guidance families behind SAMs, from the SA-2 that downed Powers to Patriot and Stinger.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":29615441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"editor_notices":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[665,664],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29615776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aviation-world","category-military-aviation"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Surface-to-Air Missile Explained: How SAMs Work | MiGFlug<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How a surface-to-air missile works: radars, launchers and the five guidance families behind SAMs, from the SA-2 to Patriot and Stinger.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/how-surface-to-air-missile-works-sam-guidance-explained\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"it_IT\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Surface-to-Air Missile Explained: How SAMs Work | MiGFlug\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How a surface-to-air missile works: radars, launchers and the five guidance families behind SAMs, from the SA-2 to Patriot and Stinger.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/migflug.com\/afterburner\/it\/how-surface-to-air-missile-works-sam-guidance-explained\/\" \/>\n<meta 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