Defending Rodinu: Volume 2 - Build-Up and Operational History of the Soviet Air Defence Force, 1960-1989

Within just 15 years the Soviet air defenses progressed from conventional AA guns and piston engine fighters to SAMs and Mach 2 capable missile armed interceptors.
Having developed a major Air Defense Force (PVO) capable of covering the entire airspace of the USSR, and then fielded interceptors and surface-to-air missiles capable of effectively intercepting even high-flying foreign reconnaissance aircraft, during the early 1960s theoretically the Soviets had managed to seal their airspace to unwarranted visitors. Nevertheless, multiple foreign intelligence agencies and air forces continued seeking to penetrate the airspace of the USSR by means ranging from non-steerable ‘spy blimps’, via strategic bombers, to high-speed tactical reconnaissance aircraft. This activity kept the PVO on such high levels of alert that time and again it reacted mercilessly even to entirely innocent passenger airliners, causing several international incidents.Defending Rodinu, Volume 2 is the operational history of the PVO from the early 1960s into the late 1980s – a period of continuously escalating tensions of the Cold War between the East and the West. Using documentation and publications never before released in the English language, and richly illustrated, it provides a comprehensive, single-source point of reference for historians and enthusiasts alike.