Description
The missile can be deployed on a variety of platforms, including the Mi-24V and from 1979-onwards the MT-LB based 9P149 tank destroyer. There is also a shipborne version of the missile, with the launcher holding six missiles.
The missile is transported and launched from a glass-reinforced plastic tube. The missile uses a Soyuz NPO solid-rocket sustainer, with a small booster stage to launch the missile from its tube.
The missile is SACLOS with a radio command link. The use of a radio link allows the missile to travel much faster and further than if it were wire guided. The radio link is a VHF system with five frequency bands and two codes to minimize the risk of jamming. The system comprises a KPS-53AV 8x daylight-only direct vision sight with an integrated laser rangefinder. After the missile is launched the gunner has to keep the sight's crosshairs on the target until impact. Appropriate steering commands are transmitted to the missile via the radio link.
The missile flies above the gunner's line of sight to the target. With the range of the target determined by the laser rangefinder, the missile descends onto the target just before impact. This is done primarily to clear obstacles, instead of achieving a top-attack, and can be switched off. It is possible to engage low and slow moving helicopters with the system; however, since the missile only has a contact fuze a direct hit would be needed.
Soviet sources report kill ratios of 75-85% during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Also a Mil demonstration in Sweden in late 1995 using a Mi-28A firing Shturm and Ataka missiles also showed good results: from a hovering helicopter a Shturm was fired at a target 900 m away, and from level flight at 200 km/h an Ataka was fired at a target 4700 m away. Both missiles passed within 1 m of their targets.
It is possible there were problems with early models of the missile— Soviet stocks of the missile were rebuilt to AT-6B and C standard by 1994.
The export price of the missile in 1992 was $50,000.
Read more about this topic: 9K114 Shturm
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