Romanian SAM missile, history

Few days ago I find an article about romanian SAM fired in december 1989 from Craiova. What type of missile is there? If you have pictures with missile it will be wonderfull if you post it

Reportedly it were about 29(?) Sa-6 from 51th brigade if I am well informed?
Can anyone confirm this?
What article did you find Soim, is it in internet?

greetings
Jeroen

After doing some checks on google earth.
Is it the unit northeast of Manastirea Circea?
It seems a bit deserted now, but with a new Lockheed AN/FPS-117 radar.

Jeroen

Jeroen,

Where exactly did you notice the radar? I kept looking on Google Earth and couldn't see it. Furthermore I passed many times on the road that goes from Craiova to Carcea and didn't see it.

Btw, the Google Earth photos are rather old. Many new buildings have appeared in the area, due to real estate development.

Victor

After passing the viaductul take intersectia/E70 to left into Circea.
At the Fantana go right the road leading into the fields will bring you there, it will be at left hand. To go to entrance you have to pass the manastirea.

google earth gives it as 44 16 43.09 N 23 54 52.22 E

do you see it?

greetings
Jeroen

Thanks. Now, I see it.

Well Victor nice!

Could you help me to find the other radars at Birova(2002), Ovidiu(1998), Giarmata(1998), and Varfel muntii/Muntii Apuseni?
Near Ovidiu I only find some underground command post with comms tower, amo store.
Near Giarmata I found only old radar site at 45 50 58.70N 21 18 19.38E, what was it?
I remember seeing some P-14 tall King radar near timisoara in 1990, but do not remeber where exactly.
Sometimes they were for Sa-5 rockets, but did Romania have those then?
The radar was 33 meters wide 22 meters high, very large!
Birova should be in Suceava/Iasi area.

Jeroen

Sorry, my work takes only to Oltenia (Southwestern part of Romania).

Romania never had the SA-5.
There are 5 main radar sites equipped with FPS-117 radars at: Ovidiu, Constanta; Giarmata, Timisoara; Vf. Muntele Mare from the Apuseni Mountain Range, Circea near Craiova and Dumbraveni near Suceava / Salcea Airport. All, except the one at Giarmata, have a recognizable white dome (like a soccer ball)

There are numerous other radar sites, equipped mainly with Soviet vintage systems, in the process of being replaced by mobile TPS-79 Gap Filler radars. Two are already deployed at Ianca and Hoceni, 17 others are being built and delivered as we speak.

Here's a .kmz file (opens in Google Earth) with wich you can vizualize radar and SAM sites in Romania and all over the world - of course only those in areas available in high-resolution imagery:
http://geimint.blogspot.com/2008/06/worldw...e-overview.html

This post has been edited by Vici on April 18, 2009 11:11 am

At Giarmata the radar is right next to the road passing at the west of the village . If you are going from Timisoara to Lipova you will se it on the feft side of the road . The radar is at NW of the village.

This post has been edited by ovichelu on April 18, 2009 02:41 pm

Thanks Vici and Ovichelu!

Unfortunately there seem to be two villages called Dumbraveni near Sulceava, one south and one southeast, but I found the radar site at GE.
47 39 57.31N 26 22 52.25E

So where exactly is Ovidiu radar?

You can precisely locate the radar at Ovidiu if you download the file in the link provided above and open it with Google Earth. It's to the north-west of Ovidiu village in Constanta county.

The one near Suceava might also be here:
47.712447 26.353448
Both this location and yours are in low-res areas so it's hard to tell which one it is.

This post has been edited by Vici on April 19, 2009 12:57 pm

Indeed

I have the other Dumbraveni at 47 21N 16 14E. There I do not find any radar site, also it seems less favourable because of nearby mountain ridges.
So my educated guess iit is the other one, maybe somebody from Salcea club can confirm it.
The lay-out of that site resembles giarmata a bit.

Ovidiu at 44 17 24.86 28 31 37.72 some one identified it as statie meteo!

Did RoAF construct new MIM23 sites?

Jeroen

This post has been edited by Jeroen on April 19, 2009 02:36 pm

Gentlemen,

just a quick question here.

Is highlighting the location and equipment of working military installations,

breaking any National Security regulations of Romania?

I would not want to see the owners of the site get into any trouble.

Kevin in Deva.

Jeroen, the MiM-23 Hawk is not yet fully operational. No live fire exercise took place until now. All the equipment is deployed in a garrison on the outskirts of Bucharest.

Kevin, I don't think it would be a problem. If you look trough various issues of "Cer Senin" or "Observatorul Militar" magazines, you'll find plenty of articles where they mention the unit, location and equipment used, photos of it, even short interviews where the personnel assigned there describes some of the characteristics of the equipment, and compares it to the older types.