Something Everyone Should Know About SA-24 MANPADS

A number of people have sent me this video, which claims to show a complete SA-24/9K338 Igla-S MANPADS

The SA-24 is one of the most advanced shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles in the world, so capturing complete systems would be a massive boon to the rebels, but in this example there's actually nothing much to get excited about.  What we are seeing here is a training model, and how do we know that?  First of all the entire system is painted silver, indicating it's a training version, but even if a Syrian soldier had got carried away with some silver paint on a working model we also have this rather important word written on the missile tube and grip-stock:

 

Steve Zaloga, editor of Teal Group’s “World Missiles and UAV Briefing” explained the meaning of the word:

The Russian word Maket is borrowed from the French (maquette) and means “Model” rather than mock-up. Maket is painted on Russian training weapons so that troops don’t confuse them with the real thing.

This hasn't stopped some opposition groups waving them around like they could actually do any damage, for example the Islam Brigade

The fact is the only way these "Maket" SA-24s will ever damage a helicopter is if someone uses it as a club to hit a helicopter while it's still on the ground.

Related articles
Sky News Arabic Misidentifies Weapons As SA-24 MANPADS
New Type Of Shoulder Mounted Surface To Air Missile Captured By The Opposition  
Video Shows Captured SA-16 And SA-24 Surface To Air Missiles
The Trigger - The MANPADS presence in the Syrian conflict mapped
NYT At War - Heat-Seeking Missiles in Syria: The SA-7 in Action with Rebels
Youtube Playlist MANPADS Sightings In Syria

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