The Russian Strela-10 SAM

The Russian Strela-10 SAM system comprises a launcher with two pods, each containing two 120mm (127mm on late models) Surface to Air Missiles mounted on a MT-LB tracked APC hull.

The system was developed in the early 1970’s and entered service in the former Soviet Army in 1976 under the designation Strela-10. Like most military vehicles, it has under gone upgrades through out its service – Strela-10M, -10M2 and -10M3.

The system uses visually-aimed, optical/infra-red guidance missiles (the system uses its own tracking radar mounted on the launcher) to an altitude of 3000m – 3500m (classed as low-altitude), thou modern variants have IR homing. The single-stage solid propellant rocket motor can push the FRAG-HE warhead up to Mach 2 where at which point the impact + radar proximity fuse will detonate the warhead taking the enemy aircraft out.

The Russian Strela-10 SAM Operators (Former and current)

Armenia
Azerbaijan
Belarus
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Croatia
Cuba
Hungary
India
Iraq
Jordan
Macedonia
North Korea
Poland
Russia
Serbia
Slovakia
Vietnam
Ukraine

The system was responsible for shooting down American aircraft (such as A-10) during the 1991 Gulf War, whilst being operated by former Iraqi Forces.

Its believed that US aircraft were hit by the system in Kosovo by Serb Forces, but no aircraft or crews were lost.