SOSNA-R 9M337 (SA-25)

The SOSNA-R 9M337 (SA-25) hyper-velocity beam rider missile is a two-stage missile designed for interception of fired wing aircraft and helicopters, as well as guided weapons and cruise missiles. The system is intended to protect against all types of air threats including high-precision weapons e.g. cruise missiles and guided aircraft missiles in the area of the system responsibility: in range – up to 10 km, in altitude – up to 5 km.

Structure principles

• mount of missile armament with a launcher in one combat vehicle, air search and target tracking equipments, missile flight control units that are combined by integrated optronic combat control system
• missile armament consists of 12 high-speed high-precision maintenance-free missiles SOSNA-R deployed in a launcher. Light weight of the missiles allows to dispose of a transport/loading vehicle from the system
• optimal configuration of surface-to-air guided missile (SAM) payload allows to improve impact effect due to increased weight of spread warheads and application of impact/non-impact laser fuse with continuous circular beam pattern and adaptive burst time
• special multichannel automatic high-precision practically all-weather and day/night optronic control system
• combined missile control system: radio command system in start zone; remote orientation in laser beam after engine division and missile targeting to the line-of-sight
• optronic combat control system with sector scan and in the automate target designation mode provide autonomous target detection capability

State trials of Russia’s new short-range air defense missile system would begin in summer 2015, Tochmash design bureau told RIA Novosti on 19 May 2015. The system, dubbed Sosna ["Pine"], was expected to replace Strela-10M air defense systems in service with the Russian armed forces. “Last year, we successfully completed the preliminary tests of this system. In summer, the state trials of the system at testing grounds of the Land forces will begin,” Tochmash Managing Director Vladimir Slobodchikov said.

“The outcome of the trials will determine whether this system will be put in service with the Russian Army,” Slobodchikov said. According to Tochmash, the Sosna system “is intended to protect against all types of air threats including high-precision weapons like cruise missiles and guided aircraft missiles in the area of the system responsibility: in range – up to 10 km, in altitude – up to 5 km.”

Slobodchikov noted that a number of foreign countries, including those of the South-East Asia region and the Middle East, have shown interest in acquiring the Russian Sosna system. Sosna participated in military exhibitions in South Africa and United Arab Emirates and would be exhibited in Peru and Brunei.

Several Sosna vehicles will typically operate together with a command vehicle carrying a surveillance system. Each Sosna vehicle had 12 ready-to-fire missiles and could be reloaded in 12 minutes. It uses the same Sosna-R two-stage missile that is used with the company's Palma naval air defence system, which is in service with the Russian and Vietnamese navies. One variant of the system features high fire power due to the combination of the missiles and 30mm 2F38 twin-barreled air defense automatic gun.

Basic Characteristics