Kalashnikov successfully finished testing of Guided surface-to-air Missile for Anti-missile defense STRELA 10M. Tests successfully completed on the Donghuz polygon in Russia. Kalashnikov Group has started serial production in the interest of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. It has bright prospects in terms of export. The 9M333 missile is designed to destroy low-flying targets like planes and helicopters, all kinds of parachuted or moduled optical targets and remotely piloted flying vehicles and cruise missiles. Its seeker has 3 working modes: photocontrast, infrared and jamming. This makes the 9M333 missile unique. The 9M333 missile works in the launch and forget mode.
The STRELA-10M (Arrow) is a highly mobile, visually aimed, optical/infrared-guided, low-altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system. The STRELA-10M is expected to be replaced by the Sosna anti-aircraft missile system. The system is based on the MT-LB chassis consisting of 2×6 Sosna-R 9M337 (SA-24) beam rider missiles with a range of 10 km and altitude of 5 km. The turret also includes air search and target tracking equipments, missile flight control units that are combined by integrated high-precision ECM-protected electro-optical control system (EOCS). STRELA-10M is its GRAU designation; its NATO reporting name is SA-13 “Gopher”.
The STRELA-10M is the successor of the 9K31 Strela-1 (SA-9 “Gaskin”) and can also use the Strela-1’s missiles in place of the 9M37. Development of the 9K37 Strela-10SV system was initiated July 24, 1969. The decision to begin the development of a new non-all-weather system was taken despite the simultaneous development of an all-weather hybrid gun/missile system 9K22 “Tunguska” mainly as an economical measure. It was also seen as advantageous to have a system capable of fast reaction times and immunity to heavy radio-frequency jamming. Development of the system continued throughout the years through Strela-10M, -10M2 and -10M3 variants introducing among other things improved radio communications.
