More Details Of Air-To-Air Missiles Used As Surface-To-Surface Missiles

Yesterday I wrote about K-13 series air-to-air missiles being used as surface-to-surface missiles, and today we now have a new video that provides more information about the way in which they are being used (thanks to Mads Dahl)

Unlike the previous video, this new video contains much clearer shots of the missiles, and how they are being used.  One thing that stands out for me is the item at the bottom of this frame

In the previous video it was clear the seeker at the end of the missile had been removed, which led me to question how the missile was being detonated when it reached it's target.  What I believe we have here is the answer to that question, a DIY impact fuze, which can be seen on the rocket just before the launch

It's still questionable how useful these rockets are, as they don't have a particularly large payload, and are almost certainly going to be inaccurate when used this way.  However, I don't imagine they would be much less powerful or accurate than the DIY rockets the opposition are using (if not more), so they aren't exactly out of place in the opposition arsenal, and this is another example of them using what is at hand to fight the conflict, even if it requires a bit of modification.


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You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com

Video Footage Of Air-To-Air Missiles Being Used As Surface-To-Surface Missiles In Syria

This rather remarkable video filmed near Qatinah, Homs, sent to me by Mads Dahl, shows a unique example of an air-to-air missile being used as a surface-to-surface missile

In the video we see a K-13 variant missile, a Soviet copy of the US Sidewinder missile, being prepared for ground launch, without the seeker and guidance sections at the end of the missile.  Here's an example of one of the variants

And an example without the seeker and guidance sections attached

Thanks to Cat-UXO

The location of the launch is interesting, as it appears to be near Dabaa air-base, which recently was at least partly overrun, with large amounts of equipment captured, including the same type of missile shown in the video.  It would seem that the opposition fighters in that area have decided to make the most of these missiles, which are designed for air-to-air combat, by building a DIY launcher to fire them.  As you can imagine, they've pretty no way to aim these, or is it certain the warheads will detonate correctly, so whether this is a one off experiment or something they'll use more regularly is unclear at the moment.

Thanks to Nic Jenzen-Jones, Ronald Elzenga, Oryx, and David Cenciotti for help with this post.


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You can contact the author on Twitter @brown_moses or by email at brownmoses@gmail.com