Iranian Sea Skimming Missiles

[arri]

Thanks to China, Iran has been building sophisticated anti ship missiles in 3 classes: light, standard and heavy, each in several sub classes and numerous delivery systems.

Kowsar is the light missile, there are 2 models being manufactured and kowsar-3 is under development.

Kowsar-1 is identical to Chinese C-701 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-701

25km range, very small, only 2.5 meters long, Mach .8 with TV,IR and millimeter radar. Its advantage is its size and can be put on small FACs, several on a a small truck. Disadvantage is its short range and 29kg warhead.

Kowsar-2 is identical to Chinese TL-10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TL-10

This is essentially the fire and forget version of Kowsar-1. Because of that, it can be put on light fighters like the F-5 and all sorts of helicopters and on just about any vessle because you just fire it, you don't need to guide it or give it initial targeting data. Iran has those on its hovercrafts now.

Kowsar-3 is under development. This one is Iranian and its aim is to increase the warhead size to 120kg by replacing the rocket engine with a small turbojet engine.

Noor is the standard size missile. 3 versions are built and they are almost identical to chinese C-801 and C-802, that are comparable in size, sophistication and capabilities to Exocet and Harpoon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-802

Noor is 6.5 meters long and a 165 kg warhead. This is what Iran has on its bigger boats and ships, SU-24s, F-4s, and Kilo Subs.

Noor-1 (originally Tondar) has a solid fuel rocket engine and has a range of about 40km, 50 air launched.

Noor-2 is the same thing with turbojet engine and has a range of 170km.

Noor-3 (Ghadr?) has a little extra booster for Sub launch, but I don't think the midget subs can fire it.

Ra'ad is the heavy weight and it is Iranian designed. They used the silkworm airframe, shoved the brains and guidance of Noor into it and put a turbojet engine in it for extra range. It has a 315kg warhead and a 360km range. Advantage is hitting any point in Persian Gulf from land and can do serious damage. Disadvantage is its big and easy to intercept.

Iran also built a copy of Sea Killer 2, an italian SSM, by the name of Fajre e darya, but it was junk. In addition, Iran has an inventory of Silkworms HY-2, Chinese C-802s and rumoured to have a supply of SS-N-22 sunburns and SS-N-26 Yakhonts but I can't find any evidence.

That's in a nutshell.

[galileo]

That is gonna be a good thread and it hopefully will remain focused on the technical side. Some pictures would help ...

[arri]

Kowsar 1 (C-701)
Kowsar-2 (TL-10)
and update on Kowsar-3

Kowsar-1 for land and sea

Sea delivery: 4 each on China Cat class FAC, 2 each on upgraded Paykaab FAC, The new upgraded Tir will also be armed with 4 Kowsar missiles.

Kowsar-2: 4 each on Hovercrafts

Air delivery for Kosar-2: SH-3D Sea King and up to 4 on F-5/Azarakhsh.

I didn't know they fitted their hovercrafts with it as well! I wonder how useful it becomes.

[arri]

Originally Posted by Sajjad

I didn't know they fitted their hovercrafts with it as well! I wonder how useful it becomes.

The advantage of Kowsar-2 is that it doesn't need a complex fire control system. You fire it in the right direction, it goes up, selects a target and there it goes.

[Zmey Smirnoff]

Arri, excellent thread, info and photos. Please keep it up.

[babehshalom]

which missile was it that was fired at the saar ship? the noor?

[arri]

Originally Posted by babehshalom

which missile was it that was fired at the saar ship? the noor?

The Israeli sources say it was a Chinese C-802, but to be frank, if it was a Noor, the ship would have been sunk. Based on the damage and profile, I am pretty sure it was a Kowsar-1.

[arri]

Noor-1 (C-801)
Noor-2 (C-802)
Noor-3 (modified for Sub-launch)

The main difference between Noor-1 and 2 is the engine. Noor-1 has a solid fuel rocket engine with a range of 40 to 50km. Noor-2 has a turbojet engine with a range of 170 to 200km.

Sea delivery: 4 each on Mowj Class, Alvand Class, Hamzeh Class, Sina and Kaman Class Missile Boats, and Thondar Class Missile Boats

Air delivery: 2 each on Mil-Mi-17 helicopter, 2 each on F-4 Phantom and up to 4 on SU-24. Mirage-F1 can be modified too, but to my knowledge, all are in Meshad air-base fighting drug dealers.

[arri]

Ra'ad anti-ship missile (not to be confused witha PAK cruise missile of the same name)

A honking big missile, indigenously developed in Iran by integrating the guidance and combat systems from Noor with an airframe based on HY-2 silkworm that is powered by a Turbojet engine. It has a 315kg warhead and a 360km range.

Advantage is the capability to hit any target in Persian Gulf from Iranian coast and it can do serious damage. Disadvantage: its big and easy to intercept.

Land launched only, but could be modified for sea launch from bigger ships.

[JEskandari]

Originally Posted by babehshalom

which missile was it that was fired at the saar ship? the noor?

just the missile without its 160 kg warhead could make far more damage to that ship .if it was noor then that saar ship was in the bottom of Mediterranean sea

[Sokuy30]

Originally Posted by Soorena

What happened to my post?

someone changed the subject in middle of sea. It was good post though.

[leftwing]

Originally Posted by arri

Thanks to China, Iran has been building sophisticated anti ship missiles in 3 classes: light, standard and heavy, each in several sub classes and numerous delivery systems.

Kowsar is the light missile, there are 2 models being manufactured and kowsar-3 is under development.

Kowsar-1 is identical to Chinese C-701 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-701

25km range, very small, only 2.5 meters long, Mach .8 with TV,IR and millimeter radar. Its advantage is its size and can be put on small FACs, several on a a small truck. Disadvantage is its short range and 29kg warhead.

Kowsar-2 is identical to Chinese TL-10 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TL-10

This is essentially the fire and forget version of Kowsar-1. Because of that, it can be put on light fighters like the F-5 and all sorts of helicopters and on just about any vessle because you just fire it, you don't need to guide it or give it initial targeting data. Iran has those on its hovercrafts now.

Kowsar-3 is under development. This one is Iranian and its aim is to increase the warhead size to 120kg by replacing the rocket engine with a small turbojet engine.

Noor is the standard size missile. 3 versions are built and they are almost identical to chinese C-801 and C-802, that are comparable in size, sophistication and capabilities to Exocet and Harpoon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C-802

Noor is 6.5 meters long and a 165 kg warhead. This is what Iran has on its bigger boats and ships, SU-24s, F-4s, and Kilo Subs.

Noor-1 (originally Tondar) has a solid fuel rocket engine and has a range of about 40km, 50 air launched.

Noor-2 is the same thing with turbojet engine and has a range of 170km.

Noor-3 (Ghadr?) has a little extra booster for Sub launch, but I don't think the midget subs can fire it.

Ra'ad is the heavy weight and it is Iranian designed. They used the silkworm airframe, shoved the brains and guidance of Noor into it and put a turbojet engine in it for extra range. It has a 315kg warhead and a 360km range. Advantage is hitting any point in Persian Gulf from land and can do serious damage. Disadvantage is its big and easy to intercept.

Iran also built a copy of Sea Killer 2, an italian SSM, by the name of Fajre e darya, but it was junk. In addition, Iran has an inventory of Silkworms HY-2, Chinese C-802s and rumoured to have a supply of SS-N-22 sunburns and SS-N-26 Yakhonts but I can't find any evidence.

That's in a nutshell.

Great thread, you have any knowledge about how many of these missiles Iran has, how much it costs to produce them?

[arri]

Originally Posted by Soorena

Anyway, I quoted Seymour Hersh, saying that US has to send in commandos BEFORE any air attack to blow up Iranian air defense systems in order to create a safe arena to make the air raids. So, far from being very different from the 2006 war -if anything- it will be far worse than that war (for the Americans/Israelis) because in the war of 2006 Israel DID NOT PLAN to send in ground troops they wanted to destroy Hezballah by PURE air force; in any possible scenario of an attack by the US on Iran they have to send in the ground troops EVEN BEFORE they start to do the air attack!

A number of air defence systems are in fixed sites that are visible to spy satellites and ELINT aircraft. US could certainly send some commandos to take those out. GOOD for them. However, since Iran domestically produces a number of air defence systems: S-200, HQ-2, HQ-7, RIM-66, MiM-23 and Oerlikon 35MM and some others, any defence strategist with half a brain would have many reserves units hidden away under camouflage net or in bunkers etc, especially if the enemy has superior ELINT capability. I personally think that most of US sees from space are decoys and at best has reliable intelligence on 10% of Iranian air defence assets.

Furthermore, many systems are mobile, HQ-7, TOR-M1, SA-6 and nobody would leave them parked someplace to be taken out for too long.

Finally, Iranian land based SSM assets are on mobile launchers and the area is large. They can be hidden , come out, fire, and go back into hiding, much like Hezbollah even with US total air superiority.

[arri]

Originally Posted by leftwing

Great thread, you have any knowledge about how many of these missiles Iran has, how much it costs to produce them?

Numbers are hard to come by. We have no idea how many land based launchers Iran has for any of the missiles.

Sea delivery for kowsar: 74 Paykaap X2, 15 China sea X 4, however crafts .. that's about 250 .. then air born, land and resupply.

Noor, you have all the ships plus 10 Tondar class missile boats with 4 each and that's about 80 or so. 30 SU-24X4, 35 F-4X2, 15 Mil-mi-17 .. that's about 250.

No data on how many Ra'ad launchers.

You also have to put into consideration that there has be inventory to resupply these assets.

I would assume, at least a 1000 kowsar and 1000 Noor, maybe more.