Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

OPERATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE PERSIAN GULF
23 mm ZSU-23-4. The missile arsenal included the SA-2 and
the SA-7 employed in Vietnam, the SA-3 employed in the War
of Attrition, and a new missile, the SA-6. The Arab air defense
system was more than just large and varied, for, unlike the immobile
North Vietnamese defenses (except for light AAA and
SA-7s), the Arab air defenses could move, as both the ZSU-23-4
and SA-6 were vehicle-mounted, and the SA-7 was manportable.
What must be emphasized is that the impact of the
Arab air defenses came from the combination of numbers,
mixture, mobility, and modernity, as the IAF soon found out. 6
The SA-6, the most modern of these weapons, had been observed
in 1967 but had not been seen in action. It was a relatively
small missile, weighing about 1,200 pounds and permitting
three to be mounted on a (PT-76) tank chassis (fig. 67).
Its size, speed, and smokeless sustainer engine made it difficult
to spot visually. The missile was faster (Mach 2.5–2.8) and
much more sophisticated than the other Soviet SAMs, as it used
Figure 67. SA-6. The mobile SA-6 did not see service over Vietnam, but
was effective against the Israeli air force in the 1973 war. (Reprinted
from US Army Air Defense Museum.)
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