Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K330 Tor, the system is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 "Gauntlet".

Tor was designed to shoot down guided weapons like the AGM-86 ALCM and BGM-34[3] day and night, in bad weather and jamming situations.

[7] The development of the Tor missile system started on 4 February 1975, in response to the directives of the Central Committee of the CPSU.

All three systems are mobile and self-propelled, Tor using the 9A330 combat vehicle, which carries a crew of four (one driver, three operators), and acts as an autonomous Transporter, Launcher, And Radar unit, or TLAR (similar to but not a TELAR, as it does not erect the missile to a launch position).

The target acquisition radar is an F band pulse doppler 3D radar, equipped with a truncated parabolic antenna, and a mechanically, later electronically, scanned in azimuth with a 32 degree sector view,[15] and has an average power output of 1.5 kW, which provides a maximum detection range of 25 kilometres (16 mi).

The radar is classed as a thinned array (design using fewer elements) incorporating only 570 phase shifters and uses linear polarization.

Using command guidance and radar controlled proximity fuzes, the missiles can maneuver at up to 30 g and engage targets flying at up to Mach 2 (2,500 km/h; 1,500 mph).

Cold launched, the missiles are propelled out of the vehicle before the solid fuel rocket motor fires and the thrust vectoring system turns them toward their target.

[19] The project was given strict design specifications to meet; Tor had to provide extended detection and tracking of fast, low radar cross section targets and be capable of quickly and efficiently dealing with massed air raids, while providing a high degree of automation and integration with other air defence assets.

[21] To meet these demanding specifications, the designers used a variety of new technologies, including advanced passive electronically scanned array radar for improved detection and tracking performance, enhanced digital information processing, and vertically launched missiles to improve reaction time and increase the number of readily available munitions.

[3] Further modifications occurred partly as a response of insight gained from the 1995 NATO bombing in Bosnia and Herzegovina resulting in the Tor-M1-1, or Tor-M1V, which offered improved network connectivity and ECM functions[3][21] as well as protection against countermeasures.

[45] The 3K95 "Kinzhal" (Russian: Кинжал – dagger) is the naval version of the Tor missile system developed by Altair and has the NATO reporting name SA-N-9 Gauntlet.

Using the same 9M330 missile as the land based version, the system can be mounted on vessels displacing over 800 tonnes and is known to be installed on the Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier, Kirov-class multimission cruisers, Udaloy-class anti-submarine destroyers and Neustrashimy-class frigates.

[3] After an extended testing period using a Project 1124 Grisha-class corvette (including the engagement and destruction of four P-5 Pyatyorka (SSC-1a Shaddock) anti-ship missiles in 1986[46]) Kinzhal finally entered service in 1989.

Using two top mounted, mechanically scanned, parabolic target acquisition radars, the fire control system provides a 360 degree field of view, as well as IFF.

The target engagement radar is a passive electronically scanned array antenna of the reflection type mounted on the front of the fire control system with a 60 degree field of view.

In October 2016, it was loaded onto the helipad of the Admiral Grigorovich frigate by means of an ordinary wharf crane and fixed in position with steel chains to fire at simulated cruise missiles while the ship was underway.

This could give advanced SAM capabilities to vessels without the capacity to install the larger and heavier Kinzhal system; it can also be mounted on a truck, building roof, or any horizontal surface at least 2.5 m wide and 7.1 m long.

It can go from standby to full alert in 3 minutes and acquire 144 air targets while simultaneously tracking the 20 most dangerous ones marked for priority by the two-man crew.

[53][54][55] JSC Rosoboronexport, part of the Rostec State Corporation, has started promoting the newest Tor-E2 SAM system developed and produced by the Almaz-Antey Air and Space Defence Concern in 2018.

[58] The FM-2000 is a mobile short-range air-defence (SHORAD) system unveiled by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation at the 2018 Zhuhai Airshow and in service as of 2019.

[citation needed] In a press conference regarding the 2008 South Ossetia War, Russian defence ministry spokesperson Anatoliy Nogovitsyn speculated about the use of the Tor missile system by Georgian Armed Forces against attacking Russian aircraft suggesting it as a possible cause of the loss of a Tu-22MR strategic bomber, shot down by Georgian air-defences while on a reconnaissance mission during the conflict.

[63][64] On 9 April 2018, the Israeli Air Force reportedly destroyed a Tor system supplied by Iran along with a drone hangar at Syria's T-4 airbase.

[65] On 9 January 2020 it was reported by Newsweek that U.S. officials believed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 was shot down by an Iranian Tor-M1 missile, probably by accident.

[67] Eliot Higgins of Bellingcat tweeted photographs of a Tor nose section with its distinctive canards, claimed to be taken at the crash site.

"[71] Worried about an Israeli strike, according to previous military intelligence, similar incidents happened before, with one in particular directly mentioning Iranian Revolutionary Guards Tor-M1 batteries firing a missile toward a civilian airliner by mistake in June 2007.

[72] On 9 November 2020, the Azerbaijan Ministry of Defence published a video showing the destruction of an Armenian Tor-M2 km system in the vicinity of Khojavend.

On 29 September 2023, Ukrainian National Police recovered an 8 of TOR missiles from a house in Brovary Raion, Kyiv Oblast.