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Current as of: 20 July 2009 (4559 locations)
Latest updates: inactive sites in Kazakhstan (SA-2); active and inactive sites in Russia (EW, SA-2, SA-5) and the Ukraine (EW, 36D6, SA-2, SA-3, S-300P, S-300V, S-300P garrison, S-300V garrison, Opuc Cape SAM training range); two low-resolution sites added in Iran, moved one Ukrainian low-resolution SA-2 to the regular database as an inactive SA-2 after examining Terra Server imagery of the site; changed one Ukrainian inactive S-300P site to an inactive SA-3 site after re-examinination; removed one Ukrainian S-300PT after re-examining current imagery (the site was re-equipped with the S-300PS).
This reference work contains the locations of SAM sites and related air defense facilities identified in Google Earth imagery. The downloadable file found above contains six separate folders: SAMs by country, SAMs by type, SHORAD SAMs, Historical Sites, Target Range SAMs, and Low Resolution Sites. There is a fifth folder, Range Rings, which may be obtained through the IMINT & Analysis mailing list. Subscribe to the mailing list by sending an e-mail to imintandanalysisATgmail.com with the words SAM SITE UPDATE in the subject line. Updated range ring files will be mailed to all users on the mailing list when the newest update is posted here.
SAMs by country: This folder is at first organized identically to the Range Rings folder. Each geographic area features a folder populated by subfolders for each nation. A nation's subfolder will contain up to three folders of its own, depending on the types of systems or facilities identified therein: Active (containing subfolders for each active SAM system), Inactive (containing all inactive sites), and Facilities (containing EW radar sites, SAM garrisons, and other related facilities). Clicking on the folder name for a continent or a nation will cause a pop-up window to appear displaying the inventories of that continent or nation. Different icons denote different types of facilities. These are as follows:
Squares: facilities such as garrisons, test and training centers
Diamonds: EW radar sites
Circles: 36D6 and 64N6 radar sites co-located with or operating in direct support of S-300P series SAM units
Triangles: SAM sites
The icons in the SAMs by country folder as well as the representative range rings are color coded as follows:
Dark red: SA-2 and HQ-2
Bright red: S-300P/V series, PATRIOT, TIen Kung series, NIKE-HERCULES, Arrow II
Dark blue: EW radar, to include 36D6 and 64N6 radars
Bright blue: SA-3, FM-90
Bright green: SA-6
Faded green: SA-4, SA-11
Lime green: KS-1A
Orange: HAWK, HQ-9
Purple: SA-5
White: an unoccupied location
Brown: a general facility or garrison
An active S-300PS site will therefore display as a red triangle. An S-300P garrison will display as a red square, denoting the facilities affiliation. The placemark names are hidden for clarity, but will display when an individual site is clicked on in Google Earth, along with the identified components at each site. By manipulating the individual folders for each nation and employing the color scheme above, users should find this a much enhanced visual representation of the available data.
SAMs by type: This folder contains numerous subfolders organizing the placemarks from the SAMs by country folder in a different fashion. Each individual system or type of facility (such as SAM garrisons or EW radar sites), or has its own subfolder, allowing the user to browse all the examples of a particular SAM system worldwide without sorting through each nation's subfolder in the SAMs by country folder. This allows users to identify nations operating different types of systems with relative ease. There is also a subfolder for inactive SAM sites, which is further divided into subfolders pertaining to each individual SAM system. Icons in this folder will be displayed as basic placemarkers with the name of the system displayed.
SHORAD SAMs: This folder is populated with subfolders arranged similarly to the SAMs by country folder. This folder contains placemarks identifying various SHORAD SAM emplacements that have been identified, such as Rapier and Crotale positions. Range rings are not provided, given the short ranges involved.
Historical Sites: This folder is populated with subfolders arranged similarly to the Range Rings and SAMs by country folder. The intent is to separate SAM site locations pertaining to systems which are no longer in active service in respective nations from the main database. For example, two folders are present containing placemarks for the inner and outer SA-1 SAM locations surrounding Moscow. SA-1 sites containing other systems such as SA-10 or SA-20 batteries will remain marked as to their current occupant within the main portion of the database.
Target Range SAMs: This folder contains subfolders arranged by country. Each folder contains the locations of SAM-site configured targets on bombing and electronic combat ranges. Many of these sites employ emitters or actual hardware to simulate a given system.
Low Resolution Sites: This folder contains subfolders arranged in the same manner as the SAMs by country folder. Each folder contains SAM sites found in various nations which are not visible in sufficient resolution as to ascertain their operational status. These sites will be monitored using Google Earth and various other online imagery sources to determine their status for inclusion into the main portion of the database. Many of these sites have been submitted by IMINT & Analysis readers who have researched various sources to ascertain their locations.
Range Rings: This folder contains representative range rings generated for all SAM sites which are currently active. The folder is divided into various subfolders. First, there is a subfolder for each geographic area. This folder is divided into subfolders, one for each country in that area featuring identified SAM systems. Each country folder will contain various subfolders for each type of active SAM system or identifiable EW radar system. These folders contain the color-coded range rings. The range rings are color coded using the same system described in the next section. The ranges were taken from Jane's Land-based Air Defence. System modifications such as the Pechora-2M, which increases the SA-3's range to 35km, have not been taken into account as these systems cannot be identified as of yet in Google Earth imagery. Also, ranges for the SA-2 and SA-5 are representative of either the system's maximum ranged variant (SA-5: 300 km), or the most common variant (SA-2: 43 km).
Key Contributors
Various individuals have provided SAM site locations for inclusion into this database, and their help is greatly appreciated. These individuals include Lex2 and ChristianNL from the Google Earth Community, RoAF, p_shadow, and Planeman from the IMINT & Analysis forums, and Tim Brewer.
Additional Discussion
Feel free to discuss the content of this file at the IMINT & Analysis Forum in the SAM Site Overview discussion thread found here.
Past Updates
Information regarding previous updates to this database has been archived in the comments page attached to this post.
Current as of: 20 July 2009 (4559 locations)
Latest updates: inactive sites in Kazakhstan (SA-2); active and inactive sites in Russia (EW, SA-2, SA-5) and the Ukraine (EW, 36D6, SA-2, SA-3, S-300P, S-300V, S-300P garrison, S-300V garrison, Opuc Cape SAM training range); two low-resolution sites added in Iran, moved one Ukrainian low-resolution SA-2 to the regular database as an inactive SA-2 after examining Terra Server imagery of the site; changed one Ukrainian inactive S-300P site to an inactive SA-3 site after re-examinination; removed one Ukrainian S-300PT after re-examining current imagery (the site was re-equipped with the S-300PS).
This reference work contains the locations of SAM sites and related air defense facilities identified in Google Earth imagery. The downloadable file found above contains six separate folders: SAMs by country, SAMs by type, SHORAD SAMs, Historical Sites, Target Range SAMs, and Low Resolution Sites. There is a fifth folder, Range Rings, which may be obtained through the IMINT & Analysis mailing list. Subscribe to the mailing list by sending an e-mail to imintandanalysisATgmail.com with the words SAM SITE UPDATE in the subject line. Updated range ring files will be mailed to all users on the mailing list when the newest update is posted here.
SAMs by country: This folder is at first organized identically to the Range Rings folder. Each geographic area features a folder populated by subfolders for each nation. A nation's subfolder will contain up to three folders of its own, depending on the types of systems or facilities identified therein: Active (containing subfolders for each active SAM system), Inactive (containing all inactive sites), and Facilities (containing EW radar sites, SAM garrisons, and other related facilities). Clicking on the folder name for a continent or a nation will cause a pop-up window to appear displaying the inventories of that continent or nation. Different icons denote different types of facilities. These are as follows:
Squares: facilities such as garrisons, test and training centers
Diamonds: EW radar sites
Circles: 36D6 and 64N6 radar sites co-located with or operating in direct support of S-300P series SAM units
Triangles: SAM sites
The icons in the SAMs by country folder as well as the representative range rings are color coded as follows:
Dark red: SA-2 and HQ-2
Bright red: S-300P/V series, PATRIOT, TIen Kung series, NIKE-HERCULES, Arrow II
Dark blue: EW radar, to include 36D6 and 64N6 radars
Bright blue: SA-3, FM-90
Bright green: SA-6
Faded green: SA-4, SA-11
Lime green: KS-1A
Orange: HAWK, HQ-9
Purple: SA-5
White: an unoccupied location
Brown: a general facility or garrison
An active S-300PS site will therefore display as a red triangle. An S-300P garrison will display as a red square, denoting the facilities affiliation. The placemark names are hidden for clarity, but will display when an individual site is clicked on in Google Earth, along with the identified components at each site. By manipulating the individual folders for each nation and employing the color scheme above, users should find this a much enhanced visual representation of the available data.
SAMs by type: This folder contains numerous subfolders organizing the placemarks from the SAMs by country folder in a different fashion. Each individual system or type of facility (such as SAM garrisons or EW radar sites), or has its own subfolder, allowing the user to browse all the examples of a particular SAM system worldwide without sorting through each nation's subfolder in the SAMs by country folder. This allows users to identify nations operating different types of systems with relative ease. There is also a subfolder for inactive SAM sites, which is further divided into subfolders pertaining to each individual SAM system. Icons in this folder will be displayed as basic placemarkers with the name of the system displayed.
SHORAD SAMs: This folder is populated with subfolders arranged similarly to the SAMs by country folder. This folder contains placemarks identifying various SHORAD SAM emplacements that have been identified, such as Rapier and Crotale positions. Range rings are not provided, given the short ranges involved.
Historical Sites: This folder is populated with subfolders arranged similarly to the Range Rings and SAMs by country folder. The intent is to separate SAM site locations pertaining to systems which are no longer in active service in respective nations from the main database. For example, two folders are present containing placemarks for the inner and outer SA-1 SAM locations surrounding Moscow. SA-1 sites containing other systems such as SA-10 or SA-20 batteries will remain marked as to their current occupant within the main portion of the database.
Target Range SAMs: This folder contains subfolders arranged by country. Each folder contains the locations of SAM-site configured targets on bombing and electronic combat ranges. Many of these sites employ emitters or actual hardware to simulate a given system.
Low Resolution Sites: This folder contains subfolders arranged in the same manner as the SAMs by country folder. Each folder contains SAM sites found in various nations which are not visible in sufficient resolution as to ascertain their operational status. These sites will be monitored using Google Earth and various other online imagery sources to determine their status for inclusion into the main portion of the database. Many of these sites have been submitted by IMINT & Analysis readers who have researched various sources to ascertain their locations.
Range Rings: This folder contains representative range rings generated for all SAM sites which are currently active. The folder is divided into various subfolders. First, there is a subfolder for each geographic area. This folder is divided into subfolders, one for each country in that area featuring identified SAM systems. Each country folder will contain various subfolders for each type of active SAM system or identifiable EW radar system. These folders contain the color-coded range rings. The range rings are color coded using the same system described in the next section. The ranges were taken from Jane's Land-based Air Defence. System modifications such as the Pechora-2M, which increases the SA-3's range to 35km, have not been taken into account as these systems cannot be identified as of yet in Google Earth imagery. Also, ranges for the SA-2 and SA-5 are representative of either the system's maximum ranged variant (SA-5: 300 km), or the most common variant (SA-2: 43 km).
Key Contributors
Various individuals have provided SAM site locations for inclusion into this database, and their help is greatly appreciated. These individuals include Lex2 and ChristianNL from the Google Earth Community, RoAF, p_shadow, and Planeman from the IMINT & Analysis forums, and Tim Brewer.
Additional Discussion
Feel free to discuss the content of this file at the IMINT & Analysis Forum in the SAM Site Overview discussion thread found here.
Past Updates
Information regarding previous updates to this database has been archived in the comments page attached to this post.
