Three Fingers of Death: Soviet 2K12 KUB (SA-6 Gainful) Missile System

The story of one of the most successful air defense missile systems in history and eyewitness accounts from those who fought with and against this system.

Perhaps no weapon ever produced had so many historical impacts in modern warfare, such as surface-to-air missiles produced in the Soviet Union. Originally designed to provide defense of the Soviet Union from attacks by American bombers during the Cold War, the first Soviet surface-to-air missiles decisively influenced the sequence of events, when they shot down the American U-2 reconnaissance airplanes over the USSR and Cuba. Soviet surface-to-air missiles were delivered to North Vietnam and played a significant role in the defense of North Vietnam inflicting a heavy toll upon US forces. A new generation of a mobile surface-to-air missiles during the October War of 1973 was a big surprise for the Israeli air force, which suffered considerable losses from these missiles. To this day, surface-to-air missiles manufactured in the Soviet Union and Russia are the backbone of the air defense for many countries. It is not surprising that a large number of surface-to-air missiles are still in use today, including the 2K12 Kub-M (SA6-6 Gainful) self-propelled missile system.

Sergei Korolev conducted the first Soviet experiments with surface-to-air missiles before the outbreak of World War II. However, his further work on these experiments was cut short, due to the purges which brought Korolev to a gulag, under the accusation that he was undermining the Soviet government. During the war, the Red Army used unguided rockets nicknamed ‘Katyusha’ (officially designated as BM-13 Guards Mortar). One of the experiments with ‘Katyusha’ rockets was as barrage anti-aircraft missiles. After the great victory in World War II, Stalin ordered the German designers to be released and to form mixed teams for the production of ground-to-air missiles based on German technology, headed by Soviet designers.

Soviet designer Isaiev led a team to develop a Soviet liquid-fueled rocket motor which technology was based on the German original. During the four-year development, it was determined that the development of missiles with German instructions has a lot of problems. Therefore, Stalin ordered his chief of the secret police Lavrenti Beria to carry out a ruthless solution to the problem’ and enable Moscow to receive missiles for defense from the increasing American bombers as soon as possible. Beria, the head of the NKVD’s secret Soviet police, was so rigorous in the exploitation of Russian engineers and German engineers prisoners of war, that the design bureau K-1 rapidly developed the S-25 Berkut in record time. This first missile was known in the west as the SAM-1 Guild. After Stalin’s death, the development of Soviet surface-to-air missiles continues in several directions, which enabled the development of missile systems that entered into the Air Defense branch (PVO Protiv-Vazdushnaya Oborona - Против Воздушная Оборона) such as SA-75 Dvina (SAM-2A Guideline), S-75 Desna (SAM-2B Guideline B) S-75M Volkhov (SAM-2C Guideline C), S-75M Volga (SAM-2D Guideline D), S-125 Neva (SAM-3 Goa), S-200 Angara/Vega/Dubna (SAM-5 Gammon), as well as newer S-300 (SA-10 Grumble) and S-400 missile systems (SAM-21 Growler).

In parallel with the PVO, the Soviet ground forces got their own air defense mobile system 2K11 Krug (SA-4 Ganef). The 2K11 was followed by one of the most important surface-to-air missile systems in the Soviet Union production, a self-propelled missile system 2K12 Kub-M (SAM-6 Gainful) and successor 9K37 Buk (SA-11 Gadfly). This book is speaking about the 2K12, one of the most successful and the most proliferated air-defense missile system which is, after 50 years, still in use in many countries.