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| Russian Military Receives New Strela-10 Air Defense Missiles |
Moskow - The Russian Armed Forces have reportedly taken delivery of a batch of new 9M333 surface-to-air missiles from weapons company Kalashnikov Concern. The missile, known as the Strela-10, was manufactured and delivered to the Russian army under two government contracts ahead of schedule, according to a company news release. This missile is designed to bring down planes and helicopters as well as various types of low-flying drones.
The 9M333 surface-to-air missile has a horizontal range of 5,000 m and an altitude range of 10 m to 3,500 m. Can attack targets moving at a speed of 679 m/sec.
As for specifications, the 9M333 missile weighs 41 kg, is 219 cm long, has a diameter of 12 cm, and is equipped with a Frag-HE warhead weighing 5 kg. The missile uses a dual-mode passive ‘photocontrast’/IR seeker guidance system. The Strela-10 system is mounted on an MT-LB tracked combat vehicle manned by a crew of three consisting of the commander, gunner and driver.
This family of short-range air defense missile systems, dubbed by NATO as the SA-13 Gopher, has been in service since 1976. It has been involved in various battles including the Angolan Civil War, the Iran–Iraq War, the Gulf War, the Afghan Civil War (1989-1992), and the War Afghan Brothers (1992-1996). Then the Kosovo War, the Syrian Civil War, the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War, and the current Russian-Ukrainian War.