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 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 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 controll ...

, 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 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 ...

wire-guided

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 ...

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 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 ...

, 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'' 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) or ground-to-ground missile (GGM) 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 ins ...

China 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 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 operational ...

(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 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 detai ...

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 ( fa, صاعقه, "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 ...

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

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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

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External links