Editing Surface-to-air missile (section)

===War in Vietnam===
{{See also|List of US aircraft losses to missiles during the Vietnam War}}
[[File:F-105 hit by SA-2 over Vietnam.jpg|thumb|right|A moment after an S-75 Dvina (SA-2) hits an F-105 over North Vietnam, the fighter-bomber starts to spew flame.]]
[[File:RF-4C Phantom II of the 11th TRS is shot down by a S-75 missile over Vietnam, 12 August 1967.jpg|thumb|right|An S-75 detonates directly below an RF-4C [[reconnaissance plane]]. The crew ejected and were taken captive.]]

The Vietnam War was the first modern war in which guided antiaircraft missiles seriously challenged highly advanced supersonic jet aircraft. It would also be the first and only time that the latest and most modern [[air defense]] technologies of the [[Soviet Union]] and the most modern jet [[fighter plane]]s and [[bombers]] of the United States confronted each other in combat (if one does not count the Yom Kippur War wherein IAF was challenged by Syrian SA-3s).<ref>Michel III p. 1-4</ref> 

The [[USAF]] responded to this threat with increasingly effective means. Early efforts to directly attack the missiles sites as part of [[Operation Spring High]] and [[Operation Iron Hand]] were generally unsuccessful, but the introduction of [[Wild Weasel]] aircraft carrying [[AGM-45 Shrike|''Shrike'' missile]]s and the [[Standard ARM]] missile changed the situation dramatically. Feint and counterfeint followed as each side introduced new tactics to try to gain the upper hand. By the time of [[Operation Linebacker II]] in 1972, the Americans had gained critical information about the performance and operations of the S-75 (via Arab S-75 systems captured by Israel), and used these missions as a way to demonstrate the capability of [[strategic bomber]]s to operate in a SAM saturated environment. Their first missions appeared to demonstrate the exact opposite, with the loss of three B-52s and several others damaged in a single mission.<ref>Steven Zaloga, "Red SAM: The SA-2 Guideline Anti-Aircraft Missile", Osprey Publishing, 2007, p. 22</ref> Dramatic changes followed, and by the end of the series, missions were carried out with additional chaff, ECM, Iron Hand, and other changes that dramatically changed the score.<ref>Marshall Michel, [http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/christmas-bombing.html?c=y&page=10 "The Christmas Bombing"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130621100501/http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/christmas-bombing.html?c=y&page=10 |date=2013-06-21 }}, ''Air and Space'', January 2001</ref> By the conclusion of the Linebacker II campaign, the shootdown rate of the S-75 against the B-52s was 7.52% (15 B-52s were shot down, 5 B-52s were heavily damaged for 266 missiles)<ref>Zaloga, Steven J. Red SAM: The SA-2 Guideline Anti-Aircraft Missile. Osprey Publishing, 2007. {{ISBN|978-1-84603-062-8}}. p. 22</ref>

During the war, The Soviet Union supplied 7,658 SAMs to North Vietnam, and their defense forces conducted about 5,800 launches, usually in multiples of three. By the war's end, the U.S lost a total of 3,374 aircraft in combat operations. According to the North Vietnamese, 31% were shot down by S-75 missiles (1,046 aircraft, or 5.6 missiles per one kill); 60% were shot down by anti-aircraft guns; and 9% were shot down by MiG fighters. The S-75 missile system significantly improved the effectiveness of North Vietnamese anti-aircraft artillery, which used data from S-75 radar stations<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://svpressa.ru/post/article/213039/|title = Русская "Двина", сбив сотни "Фантомов", довела американцев до психоза - Статьи - История - Свободная Пресса|date = 14 October 2018|language=ru}}</ref> However, the U.S states only 205 of those aircraft were lost to North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles.<ref>Davies p. 72-74</ref>