The Saegheh ("Lightning" or "Thunder" in

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

; also spelled Saegre, Saeghe, Saeqeh, etc.) is any of at least eight completely separate Iranian weapons systems: a

rocket-propelled grenade A rocket-propelled grenade (RPG), also known colloquially as a rocket launcher, is a Shoulder-fired missile, shoulder-fired anti-tank weapon that launches rockets equipped with a Shaped charge, shaped-charge explosive warhead. Most RPGs can ...

(RPG) warhead, an anti-tank guided missile family, a surface-to-surface rocket, a target drone family, an air-to-air missile, a claimed stealth

unmanned aerial vehicle An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Dron ...

, a fighter jet, and an anti-ship cruise missile.

History

The first system, the ''Saeghe 1'', is an Iranian reverse-engineered clone of the American

M47 Dragon The M47 Dragon, known as the FGM-77 during development, is an American Shoulder-launched missile weapon, 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-1 ...

wire-guided

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

ATGM 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 ...

, introduced in 2001. It seems to have entered production in 2002. Iran later introduced the ''Saeghe 2'', a more advanced variant 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 ...

to defeat

explosive reactive armor Reactive armour is a type of vehicle armour used in protecting vehicles, especially modern tanks, against shaped charges and hardened kinetic energy penetrators. The most common type is ''explosive reactive armour'' (ERA), but variants includ ...

, and the ''Saeghe-4'', with a thermobaric warhead. The ''Saeghe-1'' weights and can penetrate armor up to . The ''Saeghe 2'' missile has 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 can penetrate up to of armor. The ''Saeghe 1'' and ''Saeghe 2'' ATGMs have a range of . Despite being essentially obsolete, ''Saegheh'' anti-tank guided missiles have been exported to Syria, Hezbollah, and Shia militias in Iraq. The ''Saeghe 1'' and ''Saeghe 2'' were in production and service as of 2011, though they were not widely deployed. The ''Saeghe'' ATGM is extremely hard to aim and in Iranian service it appears to be limited to IRGC and rapid response forces. In 2006, Iran tested a completely unrelated short-range

surface-to-surface missile A surface-to-surface missile (SSM) is a missile designed to be launched from the ground or the sea and strike targets on land or at sea. They may be fired from hand-held or vehicle mounted devices, from fixed installations, or from a ship. They ar ...

China View
Iran tests short-range missile that is also named Saegheh. It has a range of .

Other Saegheh name designations

Under the Saegheh name, Iran has also built a variant warhead for RPG-7 style rocket launchers. Iran also uses the Saeghe name for a

target drone A target drone is an unmanned aerial vehicle, generally remote controlled, usually used in the training of anti-aircraft crews. One of the earliest drones was the British DH.82 Queen Bee, a variant of the Tiger Moth trainer aircraft operation ...

(which comes in two variants: Saeghe 1 and Saeghe 2) and an air-to-air missile. The semi-official Tasnim news agency of Iran reported in September 2016 that an

(UAV, drone) named Saegheh similar to the US

RQ-170 Sentinel The Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, nicknamed Wraith, is an American unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) developed by Lockheed Martin and operated by the United States Air Force (USAF) for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). While the USAF has ...

spy drone had been built. It was said to be able to carry four precision-guided bombs; range was not stated. An RQ-170 had been captured by Iran in 2011. The Saegheh name is further reused for the

HESA Saeqeh The HESA Saeqeh ( ''Sâ'eğe'', "Thunderbolt"), alternatively spelt Sa'eqeh; Saegheh, or Saeqeh-80, is an Iranian-built single-seat jet fighter, derived from the American Northrop F-5. A joint product of the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force an ...

, a low production jet fighter, and for the Saeghe anti-ship cruise missile.

Operators

* **

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), also known as the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, is a multi-service primary branch of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces, Iranian Armed Forces. It was officially established by Ruhollah Khom ...

Ali Nuri Zadeh (1 August 2001) "Upon Regional and International Pressure, Iran Scales Down the Production of Ballistic Missiles and Focuses on Shorter Range and Better More Accurate Weapons; Iran Announced a Successful Test of Anti- Armor Saeqeh-1 Missile," Al-Sharq al-Awsat (London) **

Iranian Army The Islamic Republic of Iran Army (), acronymed AJA (), commonly simplified as the Iranian Army, is the conventional military of Iran and part of the Islamic Republic of Iran Armed Forces. It is tasked to protect the territorial integrity of th ...

***

Ground Forces An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by p ...

* **

Syrian Arab Army The Syrian Arab Armed Forces (SAAF; ) were the combined armed forces of Syria from 1963 to 2024. They served during the rule of the Ba'ath Party in Syria. The SAAF consisted of the Syrian Arab Army, Syrian Arab Air Force, Syrian Arab Air D ...

* **

Popular Mobilization Units The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF; ), also known as the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), is an Iran and state-sponsored terrorism, Iranian-backed paramilitary umbrella group that operates within Iraq. Although formally and legally part of t ...

* **

Hezbollah Hezbollah ( ; , , ) is a Lebanese Shia Islamist political party and paramilitary group. Hezbollah's paramilitary wing is the Jihad Council, and its political wing is the Loyalty to the Resistance Bloc party in the Lebanese Parliament. I ...

References

External links

China View
Video and info {{Iran Missiles Anti-tank guided missiles of Iran Surface-to-surface missiles of Iran Anti-tank guided missiles Guided missiles of Iran Military equipment introduced in the 2000s