Iran's Surface-to-Air Missiles That Even Surprised the US Navy

[Researcher Sanghyun Park, Aviation Guidance Research Team 3, Defense Agency for Technology and Quality] On the 19th of last month, The New York Times revealed a new type of Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM). The missile was found on a vessel transporting Iranian weapons to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, drawing attention as it is a missile of a completely different class from existing ones.

The Surface-to-Air Missile reported by The New York Times was discovered during ship search operations by U.S. naval vessels (USS Normandy, USS Forrest Sherman) in the Arabian Sea around February 2020 and November 2019. It became publicly known after details about the missile were disclosed in a U.S. Navy expert panel report.

According to the released photos, the missile is equipped with an electro-optical sensor (EO) and an optical proximity fuze designed to shoot down aircraft. It features a solid-propellant booster that detaches after accelerating with an air-breathing engine, and considering the wing shape, it is judged to be a subsonic missile. After launch, the SAM separates the solid-propellant booster in midair and maneuvers in a figure-eight pattern to identify the target, posing a threat to rotary-wing transport aircraft.

Colonel Bill Urban, spokesperson for the U.S. Central Command, stated, "There is no doubt about the origin of the weapon and its destination." However, he did not specify the exact location.

He referred to this new missile as the '358 SAM' (U.S. military designation). He also presented data showing the use of vertical gyroscopes employed in the Qaseff (U.S. military designation INR-12) and Samad (U.S. military designation KAS-04) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) used by the Houthi rebels. Colonel Urban mentioned that it uses the same inertial navigation system and satellite navigation system (INS/GNSS) as the IRN-05 drone that attacked Saudi oil facilities last October.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.