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SA-14 GREMLIN 9K34 Strela-3

The SA-14 GREMLIN (Strela-3 / Arrow-3 9K34) man-portable SAM is the successor to the SA-7/SA-7b (Strela-2 9K32 and Strela-2M 9K32M). The system consists of the 9P59 gripstock, 9P51 thermal battery/gas reservoir, and 9M36-1 missile. The external appearance of the SA-14 is very similar to the SA-7, and the gripstock, launch canister and aft missile body are almost identical. The most significant differences are the new seeker system and the substitution of a ball-shaped 9P51 thermal battery and gas reservoir for the SA-7's canister shaped battery.

9K34 "Strela-3" was developed by Design Bureau of Mechanical Engineering (Kolomna) on the basis of MANPADS 9K32M "Strela-2M" under the leadership of S.P. Nepobedimyy [ru=Invincible]. The development of a man-portable anti-aircraft missile system (MANPADS) was started by the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of September 2, 1968. The creation of a deep-cooled homing head was entrusted to a new co-executor - the design bureau of the Kyiv plant "Arsenal" MOP (chief designer of the head I.K. Polosin).

Joint tests of MANPADS as part of the 9M36 SAM in the 9P59 launch tube and the 9P58M trigger mechanism took place at the Donguz test site from November 1972 to May 1973 (the head of the test site at that time O.K. Dmitriev) under the leadership of a commission headed by D.A.Smirnov. During the tests, the shortcomings associated with the insufficient reliability of the element base of the airborne equipment of the anti-aircraft missile were identified and eliminated.

For the missile of the new portable missile complex, a fundamentally new homing head was developed, which provided a higher sensitivity (100 times) than that of the Strela-2M complex. The new GOS ensured the use of the complex on catch-up courses in almost any situation.

New technical solutions and higher combat and operational characteristics of the complex included:

• a fundamentally new thermal homing head with deep cooling, which provides a sensitivity two orders of magnitude higher than the sensitivity of the seeker of the Strela-2M complex, which made it possible to fire on opposite courses at aircraft and helicopters, as well as significantly expand the kill zone in height and parameter when firing at overtaking courses;
• ensuring the operability of the complex when firing at catch-up courses in any background situations;
• the development of a trigger mechanism that made it possible to automatically launch a missile at a target located in the launch zone when firing on a collision course.

The Strela-3 complex was maximally unified with the Strela-2M complex, which made it easier to put it into serial production and master it among the troops. The missile part of the complex was almost completely borrowed from the Strela-2M missile defense system. During the tests, the following significant advantages of the Strela-3 portable air defense system were confirmed and revealed in comparison with the Strela-2M complex:

• due to the use of a more sensitive thermal seeker in the missile, firing at jet and turboprop aircraft on a collision course at ranges up to 2500 m and at altitudes from 30 to 3000 m was ensured;
• the protection of the thermal seeker from background interference when firing on catch-up courses has been significantly increased;
• the possibilities of firing in adverse weather conditions (rain, snow, fog) and in dusty air conditions (with visual visibility of the target) have been expanded.

In the Strela-3 complex, a higher reliability of launching a rocket at a target with a jet engine on a head-on course was ensured by determining the boundary of the launch zone by radiation from the target by the automatic capture and launch machine. The external differences of the complex was a balloon at the power supply under the launch tube.

The commission for testing the 9K34 complex made proposals for the further improvement of portable air defense systems in the following directions:

• improving the efficiency of shooting;
• improved protection against organized IR interference;
• increasing protection against background interference when firing on a collision course;
• ensuring shooting at night;
• reducing the mass of the complex;
• development of more advanced means of warning, detection, identification and fire control in terms of improving their characteristics to ensure the timely firing of targets, ease of operation and reducing the psychophysical load on the anti-aircraft gunner.

By a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of January 18, 1974, the complex was put into service. The State Prize for its creation was awarded to L.G. Deev, E.A. Oleinikov, A.S. Yablonsky, M.N. Dictov, I.K. Polosin, V.V. Golovatenko, Yu.I. Fedorovsky, G.V. Izyurov, A.M. Cheprakov and others. Serial production of MANPADS "Strela-3" was carried out at the plant named after V.A. Degtyarev (Kovrov) from 1973 to 1981.

The Portable missile system "Strela 3" is equipped with small size solid propellant guided missile. The missile has an improved system of overcoming countermeasures, increased range and flight altitude. It is developed for destroying low flying aircraft and helicopters. The missile can hit the targets both in chasing and confronting headings.

First generation IR missiles such as the Vietnam-era Strela-2 (NATO: Grail) SA-7 are tail chase weapons that must pursue their targets from behind. They essentially chase the hottest item in the sky such as the thermal signature from the exhaust and hot sections of the aircraft. Because of this, they are highly susceptible to interference from background sources such as the sun, flares, and various directed energy countermeasures.

Second generation IR variants such as the SA-14 Strela-3 (NATO: Gremlin) use coolants to cool the conical scanning seeker head and in turn filter out most interfering background IR sources as well as permitting head-on and side engagement profiles. These second generation missiles are effective against traditional flares and use a cross-scan or rosette-scan “two-color” targeting capability. This enables the seeker to use IR as a primary and UV as a secondary emissions source for target acquisition.

The SA-14's new nitrogen-cooled lead sulfide seeker allows it to home in on the exhaust plume of jet engines, turboprop and helicopter gas turbine engines. The enhanced seeker allowed the SA-14 to be fired against targets from much broader angles, as well as defeating countermeasures such as exhaust shrouds. Optical filtration was added to the seeker to reduce vulnerability to typical IRCM flares.

The warhead of the SA-14 was nearly doubled in weight over the small warhead of the SA-7. The guidance electronics were reduced in weight and a new solid-propellant motor was introduced, compensating for the heavier warhead and improving aerodynamic performance. The SA-14 has a maximum range of 4500 meters, and a maximum altitude of 3000 meters.

A Belgium-based DHL Airbus 300, basically a passenger plane outfitted to carry cargo, sustained a MANPADS hit on 22 November 2003, while departing Baghdad. An SA-14, Strela-3 was the likely culprit and it significantly damaged the left wing, associated flight controls, and all three hydraulic systems. The crew managed to crash land the badly damaged aircraft and survive, but the aircraft itself was a total loss. While the DHL aircraft was not a military chartered flight, this incident illustrates that MANPADS can inflict substantial damage even to large category aircraft.