Death In A Small Box

Source : armyrecognition

February 23, 2011: STRATEGY PAGE

Russia is now offering for export an updated anti-aircraft missiles system that uses small (as in usually shoulder fired) missiles in containers (four or eight cells) that can be mounted on vehicles. This Strelets system has been around for years, but the latest version uses an Igla-S (9K338/SA-24) with a proximity fuze. This enables the missile to detonate if it comes close (and the proximity fuze detects that the missile is now moving away from the target). Older versions of Strelets carry the SA-18 missile, which is a few kilograms lighter than the SA-24, has a lower ceiling (three kilometers) and lacks the proximity fuze. Russia has been offering its SA-18/24 (Igla) portable surface-to-air missile to foreign customers for most of the past decade. The 19 kg (42 pound) system has a missile with a 2.5 kg (5.5 pound) warhead, a range of six kilometers, a max ceiling of six kilometers (20,000 feet) and a seeker that is can detect and ignore many types of flares.