9K34 Strela-3

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9K34 Strela-3
A 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14) missile and launch tube.
Type	Man-portable air-defense systems (MANPADS)
Place of origin	Soviet Union
Production history
Manufacturer	KBM, Kolomna

The 9K34 Strela-3 (Russian: 9К34 «Стрела-3»; English: arrow) man-portable air defence missile system (MANPADS) was developed in the Soviet Union as a response to the poor performance of the earlier 9K32 Strela 2 (SA-7 Grail) system. "9K34" is its GRAU designation and its NATO reporting name is SA-14 Gremlin. The missile was largely based on the earlier Strela 2, and thus development proceeded rapidly. The new weapon was accepted to service in the Soviet Army in January 1974.

The most significant change was the introduction of an all-new infra-red homing seeker head. The new seeker worked on FM modulation (con-scan) principle, which is less vulnerable to jamming and decoy flares than the earlier AM (spin-scan) seekers, which were easily fooled by flares and even the most primitive infrared jammers. Most importantly, the new seeker also introduced detector element cooling in the form of a pressurized nitrogen bottle attached to the launcher.

The effect of cooling was to expand the seeker's lead sulphide detector element's sensitivity range to longer wavelengths (slightly over 4 µm as opposed to 2.8 µm of uncooled PbS elements). In practice this made possible the tracking of cooler targets over longer ranges, and enabled forward-hemisphere engagement of jets under favourable circumstances.The seeker also had better tracking rate, enabling the missile to track maneuvering of fast and approaching targets.

A negative side effect from the aforementioned improvements was increased missile weight, which caused a slight decrease in the kinematic performance of the original Strela-2 (SA-7).^{[citation needed]} Against relatively slow, low-altitude battlefield air threats the overall effectiveness was much improved.^{[citation needed]}

Strela-3 missiles have been exported to over 30 countries.

The original Strela-3 missile was the 9M36. The follow-on to the Strela-3 was Igla.

The naval version of this missile has the NATO reporting name of SA-N-8.

Operational history

During Operation Desert Storm on 17 February 1991 an F-16 was shot down by Strela-3.^[1]

Comparison chart

References

1. ^ " Russia's Strela and Igla portable killers". a digital copy of an article from "Journal of Electronic Defense, January, 2004 by Michal Fiszer and Jerzy Gruszczynski". Retrieved: 15 June 2009.
2. ^ Istorija sozdanija i razvitija vooruzhenija i vojennoi theniki PVO suhoputnyh voisk Rossii
3. ^ General Dynamics FIM-43 Redeye

Bibliography

• Petukhov, Sergei I.; Shestov I.V. (1998). History of design and development of missile systems and military systems of AAW of Russian Land Forces / Istorija sozdanija i razvitija vooruzhenija i vojennoi tehniki PVO suhoputnyh voisk Rossii, 1.-2.. VPK Publishing. 
• "Directory of U.S. Military Rockets and Missiles, FIM-43". http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-43.html. Retrieved 2008-04-23.