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 surface-to-surface rocket, a target drone family, an air-to-air missile, a claimed stealth unmanned aerial vehicle, a fighter jet, and an anti-ship cruise missile.
Saegheh ATGM
The first system, the Saeghe 1, is an Iranian reverse-engineered clone of the American M47 Dragon wire-guided SACLOS ATGM, introduced in 2001.People's Daily Online Iran Successfully Test-fires Anti-Armor MissilePavland News Iran test-fires anti-armor missile – 31 July 2001 It seems to have entered production in 2002. Iran later introduced the Saeghe 2, a more advanced variant with a tandem-warhead to defeat explosive reactive armor, 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 and can penetrate up to of armor. The Saeghe 1 & 4 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.Galen Wright, Iranian Military Capability 2011 – Ground Forces – 15 March 2011 The Saeghe ATGM is easy to aim thank to SACLOS IR wire-guided and in Iranian service it appears to be limited to IRGC and rapid response forces.
Other Saegheh name designations In 2006, Iran tested a completely unrelated short-range surface-to-surface missileChina View Iran tests short-range missile that is also named Saegheh. It has a range of .
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 (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 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV, drone) named Saegheh similar to the US RQ-170 Sentinel 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, a low production jet fighter, and for the Saeghe anti-ship cruise missile.
Operators
Islamic Revolutionary Guard CorpsAli 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 Ground Forces
Syrian Arab Army
Popular Mobilization Units
References
External links China View Video and info