S-25 Berkut

It was only ever used defensively around Moscow. The more mobile S-75 Dvina (SA-2 Guideline) would be used in almost all other locations. Several improvements were introduced over the system's long service life. It was finally replaced by the S-300P in 1982. The system's NATO reporting name is SA-1 Guild. S-25 is short for Systema 25, referring to the entire system of missiles, radars, and launchers. Portions of the system include the V-300 missile, R-113 and B-200 radars, and A-11/A-12 antennas for the B-200.

After World War II, the Soviet Union began working on improving the defenses of its capital, Moscow, against a possible nuclear attack by American and British strategic bombers. Under Joseph Stalin, a missile program based on captured German military technology and backed by an extensive modernization of anti-aircraft artillery was launched. A 1958 U.S. Army study concluded that Moscow had the densest air defense networks of any location at the time. While the Soviets improved their anti-aircraft guns with the incorporation of fire control systems and proximity fuzes besides having an extensive program to develop interceptor aircraft, Stalin had a special interest in surface-to-air missiles based on the fact that anti-aircraft artillery and fighter aircraft did little to blunt Allied bombings against Germany. In 1950, the program Berkut ("Golden Eagle") was launched under the direction of Sergey Beria (the son of Lavrentiy Beria) and Major General Pavel N. Kuksenko of Special Bureau no. 1 (SB-1). After Stalin's death in 1953 and the power struggle that ensued, both Sergey Beria and Kuksenko were dismissed and replaced by Alexander A. Raspletin as the sole director of the program, while the program itself was renamed to S-25 in order to erase Lavrentiy Beria's memory (the "Berkut" codename came from Beria and Kuksenko's names).

In August 1950, Stalin ordered the creation of an air defense system around Moscow capable of stopping a force of 1,000 bombers coming from all directions, a specification that was kept in place even after Stalin's death. Due to the time constraints imposed by Stalin, the S-25 borrowed heavily from German technology and expertise, with some improvements introduced by Soviet scientists. The first prototype of the B-200 radar was completed in 1951, but it didn't meet the required specifications. A second prototype was completed in June 1952 and tested from 24 June to 20 September 1952. In the first tests of the guidance systems, these were mounted on aircraft rather than missiles. The first test launches of the V-300 missile took place on 25 June 1951 at the Kapustin Yar proving grounds. 50 missiles were fired before the B-200 radars arrived in late 1952. Between September 1952 and May 1953, 81 missiles were fired as the designers began integrating the missile and fire control systems. The first test of the complete system was conducted on 25 May 1953, when a Tupolev Tu-4 was successfully shot down by a V-300 missile at an altitude of 7 km (4.3 mi). Development of the initial version of the Berkut system was completed in June 1953, while the production version of the V-300 missile was test fired in 1954, engaging 20 simultaneous targets. A nuclear version of the V-300 missile carrying a 10 kt warhead was tested in January 1957, against a tight formation of planes. Construction of the launch sites, nicknamed by Nikita Khrushchev as Moskovskiy chastokol (Moscow palisades), began in 1953 and was completed through 1958. US intelligence estimated that construction of the S-25 infrastructure between 1953 and 1955 consumed the equivalent of an entire year's production of concrete. Mass production of the V-300 missiles began in 1954 at the State Aviation Plant No. 82 in Tushino. By 1959 about 32,000 V-300 missiles had been manufactured. Due to the large scale of the project and its close proximity to Moscow, Western intelligence agencies were aware of it as early as 1953. German technicians allowed to return home following Stalin's death provided a large amount of information about the system, which was codenamed as the SA-1 Guild by NATO. The system became operational in 1955. During its service life the S-25 went through several degrees of modification to improve performance. It was fired without scoring any hits against US spy planes. Despite the system age and obsolescence, the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) estimated that the V-PVO still had 2,200 operational launchers out of a total of 3,200 as late as 1986. It was replaced in service by the S-300 (NATO reporting name: SA-10 "Grumble").

Russia − Currently used as targets for training SAM systems. Strizh target-missile (system S-25M) in service as of 2011. Firing more than 11,000 missiles.

Soviet Union − Remained in service as late as 1986