The Raad ( fa, رعد, "thunder") or RAAD is an Iranian

wire-guided A wire-guided missile is a missile that is guided by signals sent to it via thin wires connected between the missile and its guidance mechanism, which is located somewhere near the launch site. As the missile flies, the wires are reeled out behi ...

anti-tank guided missile An anti-tank guided missile (ATGM), anti-tank missile, anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) or anti-armor guided weapon is a guided missile primarily designed to hit and destroy heavily armored military vehicles. ATGMs range in size from shoulder ...

based on the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nation ...

9M14M Malyutka (AT-3b Sagger) missile. The Raad began mass production in 1988 and was publicly unveiled in 1997. It is manufactured by Parchin Missile Industries, a subsidiary of Iran's

Defense Industries Organization The Defense Industries Organization (DIO) is a Conglomerate (company), conglomerate of companies run by the Iran, Islamic Republic of Iran whose function is to provide the Armed Forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Armed Forces with the necessar ...

. The Raad family comes in four variants: the base RAAD missile, a clone of the 9M14M Malyutka-M (AT-3b Sagger); the I-RAAD, with

SACLOS Semi-automatic command to line of sight (SACLOS) is a method of missile command guidance. In SACLOS, the operator has to continually point a sighting device at the target while the missile is in flight. Electronics in the sighting device and/or th ...

guidance, the RAAD-T, with a

tandem warhead A tandem-charge or dual-charge weapon is an explosive device or projectile that has two or more stages of detonation, assisting it to penetrate either reactive armour on an armoured vehicle or strong structures. Anti-tank Tandem charges are ef ...

, and the I-RAAD-T, with both a tandem warhead and

guidance. The I-RAAD-T version is the most modern in the family and the most widely exported. The Raad is one of a number of anti-tank guided missiles assembled in Iran, along with the

Toophan The Toophan ( fa, طوفان "typhoon", rarely Toofan) is an Iranian SACLOS anti-tank guided missile reverse-engineered from the American BGM-71 TOW missile. The Toophan 1, an unlicensed copy of the BGM-71A TOW missile, began mass production in ...

(

TOW Towing is coupling two or more objects together so that they may be pulled by a designated power source or sources. The towing source may be a motorized land vehicle, vessel, animal, or human, and the load being anything that can be pulled. Th ...

copy), the Towsan-1 (AT-5B copy), the Dehlaviyeh ( AT-14 copy), and the

Saegheh The Saegheh ("Lightning" or "Thunder" in Persian) (also spelled Saegre, Saeghe, Saeqeh, etc.) is any of at least eight completely separate Iranian weapons systems: a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) warhead, an anti-tank guided missile family, a s ...

(

M47 Dragon The M47 Dragon, known as the FGM-77 during development, is an American shoulder-fired, man-portable anti-tank guided missile system. It was phased out of U.S. military service in 2001, in favor of the newer FGM-148 Javelin system. The M47 Drago ...

copy). With only 400mm RHA penetration for the I-RAAD-T variant, the RAAD is obsolete against modern or older battle tanks and is largely used by second-line units or against soft targets. The Raad has been exported to militias in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria and has been used in the 2006 Lebanon War and the Iraqi and Syrian civil wars.

Name

RAAD means thunder in Persian. It is not an acronym and many sources do not capitalize the name. It is not to be confused with several other Iranian weapons also named Raad, such as the Raad-1, the

Raad-2 ''Raad''-2 (Persian:رعد-۲, means Thunder-2) is an Iranian self-propelled howitzer. Development In early September 1997, it was reported that Iran had successfully tested a locally built rapid fire mobile field gun known as ''Raad''-2 (Thunder ...

, Iran's Ra'ad anti ship missile or Pakistan's Ra'ad cruise missile.

History

During the Iran-Iraq War, Iran had an acute need for anti-tank missiles, necessitating the country to buy AT-3 Sagger missiles. Indigenous manufacturing work began in the tail end of the war and mass production began in 1998, with the Raad being the first anti-tank guided weapon to be built by Iran. The weapon was unveiled on April 30, 1997. The RAAD has almost identical components with

9M14 Malyutka The 9M14 Malyutka (russian: Малютка, links=no; "Little one", NATO reporting name: AT-3 Sagger) is a manual command to line of sight (MCLOS) wire-guided anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) system developed in the Soviet Union. It was the first ...

, from the battery to the guidance unit. The Raad is built under license. According to

SIPRI Sipri may refer to: * As-Safira, a city in Syria, known in pre-Islamic times as Sipri *Shivpuri, a city and a municipality in Madhya Pradesh, India, formerly known as Sipri *Stockholm International Peace Research Institute Stockholm Internati ...

, 1500 RAAD/Sagger missiles were built or imported by Iran between 1996 and 2001 and 2,250 from 1996 to 2004.

Combat use

Iran supplied Hezbollah with the Raad in the early 2000s and Hezbollah used Raad missiles in the 2006 Lebanon War. Israel captured ten baseline RAAD missiles on the Karine A in January 2002. The Raad has been used in the Syrian Civil War by Hezbollah and army forces. It is unclear if RAAD missiles were supplied to the army before or during the war. Some missiles have been captured by rebel forces as well. I-RAAD-T missiles have been used in the Iraqi Civil War.

Variants

RAAD

The RAAD is an identical copy of the Russian 9M14M Malyutka-M (NATO AT-3b "Sagger").

RAAD-T

The first improvement of the RAAD missile, the RAAD-T has a

to defeat

explosive Reactive Armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour that reacts in some way to the impact of a weapon to reduce the damage done to the vehicle being protected. It is most effective in protecting against shaped charges and specially hardened kinetic ener ...

. However, the RAAD-T still uses the obsolete MCLOS guidance of the original RAAD. According to its export material, the RAAD-T has improved maneuverability over the base RAAD and has 400 mm RHA penetration after reactive armor.

I-RAAD

For ''Improved RAAD'', the I-RAAD has a different launcher with a tripod-mounted

guidance system that makes the missile much easier to aim. The specific SACLOS method is a TV differential tracker. The guidance unit is similar to that of the Chinese HJ-73 system, and possibly the HJ-73C model in particular. First seen in 1998. In addition, up to four missiles can be linked to one I-RAAD launcher unit; it is considered a significant improvement. RAAD missiles can be used by I-RAAD launchers.

I-RAAD-T

The I-RAAD-T system combines the tandem-warhead of the RAAD-T missile with the SACLOS guidance system of the I-RAAD launcher. RAAD and I-RAAD missiles can be retrofitted to the I-RAAD-T standard. The I-RAAD-T also includes a simulator that allows operators to be trained on the system without actually firing a missile. 400 mm RHA penetration after reactive armor.

Operators

* * Hezbollah * * (Popular Mobilization Forces) *

Al-Quds Brigades Al-Quds Brigades (AQB) ( ar, سرايا القدس, ''Saraya al-Quds'' meaning ''Jerusalem Brigades'') is the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist organization Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which is the second largest group in the Gaza St ...

References

{{Reflist Anti-tank guided missiles of Iran Hezbollah rocket systems Military equipment introduced in the 1980s