The development of SA-2, the original name Dvina, began in 1952-1953 and was administered by the Ministry of Aircraft Production (MAP), with the overall management carried out by the Lavochkin OKB (Special Design Office). The engine development is believed to have been undertaken by the Soviet rocket engine designer Alexei Isayev at Khimki. The missile was to be a great improvement over the SA-1 Guild in that it was to be more mobile, had an increased maximum altitude capable of reaching the newer generation of American bombers, and took advantage of then new developments in early warning radar.

The first tests of the Dvina were made about 1954 near Lake Balkash, Central Asia. It was soon seen that the Dvina was far superior to the SA-1 Guild which was developed about the same time and quickly replaced it. Deployment was ready about 1957 and it first appeared in public in a parade in Red Square on November 7, 1957, towed by ZIL-157 trucks. It was then that the missile also received its NATO code name of SA-2.

Full scale deployments of the missile began in Moscow, Baku, and Leningrad by 1958, and its first foreign deployment took place in East Germany, near Berlin, by the summer of 1959.The guidance system uses an automatic radio command of the missile to the target's line of sight. The SA-2 system consisted of the missile, a computer unit, a radar called the Fan Song which detected the target and transmitted the data to the missile then converted the signals into the right launch commands such as launch angle, and the power generator on the ZIL-157 truck.

SA-2 Guideline Missile on Launcher

Development of the V-75 Dvina air defence missile system, designated SA-2 `Guideline' by NATO, started in 1953 as a medium to high SAM system for use against non-maneuvring targets such as bombers. The system became operational in 1957 when the PVO-Strany formed SA-2 missile regiments of three six rail launcher battalions, with one of the initial deployments near the city of Sverdiovsk. On 1 May 1960 the Sverdiovsk units fired a total of 14 SA-2 missiles against a Lockheed U-2 high altitude reconnaissance aircraft flown by Gary Powers. The SA-2 is a two stage missile with a large solid propellant jettisonable tandem booster stage fitted with four large clipped delta stabilising fins. Towards the mid-section of the missile are four clipped delta-shaped wings with a second set of small fixed fins at the nose and a third in-line set of slightly larger moving control fins at the tail. The SA-2A/B/C models can be distinguished by the two sets of four, flush dielectric strip antennas in front and behind the forward fins.