Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has unveiled a new air to ground attack missile capable of being mounted on attack hel...
Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has unveiled a new air to ground attack missile capable of being mounted on attack helicopters.
The anti- tank missile dubbed Azarakhsh (Thunderbolt), is a modified version of the Iranian Fatter missile, in turn a reverse engineered copy of the US AIM-9 Sidewinder air to air missile.
The 127-millimeter caliber missile weighing around 70 kg and 3,096 mm long, closely resemble the AIM-9P version which entered US service in the 1970s.
Like the sidewinder, the Azarakhsh is equipped with a indigenous Infrared (IR) heating seeking sensor to home onto the target.
The missile can be employed in air to surface and surface to surface roles, with a maximum range of 10 km at a max speed of 1980 kmph.
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The first generation short range IR guided AIM-9 Sidewinder entered US Air Force service in 1956. Since then its has been continuously evolved and the latest version is AIM-9X.
