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) is a shoulder-fired missile weapon that launches rockets equipped with an explosive warhead. Most RPGs can be carried by an individual soldier, and are frequently used as anti-tank weapons. These warheads are a ...

(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), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft without any human pilot, crew, or passengers on board. UAVs are a component of an unmanned aircraft system (UAS), which includes adding a ground-based controller ...

, a fighter jet, and an anti-ship cruise missile. Saegheh 1 and 2

The first system, the ''Saeghe 1'', is an Iranian reverse-engineered clone of the American M47 Dragon

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 ...

SACLOS ATGM, 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 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 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 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 Tasnim (''Tasnīm'') or Tasneem may refer to: *a well of water in Paradise according to Islam Given name * Tasneem Essop, South African politician * Tasneem Motara (born 1982), South African politician * Tasneem Roc, Australian television and fi ...

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 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 released few detail ...

spy drone had been built. It was said to be able to carry four

precision-guided bomb A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition designed to achieve a smaller circular error probable (CEP). The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of ...

s; 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.

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

See also

References

External links